The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast
by Ace234
Summary: The coming of Ragnarok was one of Titans' greatest unsolved mysteries. Now, the return of that lost soul will change Raven's destiny forver as a newcomer brings mysteries. Chpt.17: Starfire plays in the rain, and Raven gives a hug!
1. The Rage of Ragnarok

The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast

by Ace234

To this day, Robin had always viewed the coming of the Raging Ragnarok as one of the strangest battles of the Titans' careers in Jump City. His voluminous case files were becoming predictable. Enemies, great and small, had the same motivations: avarice, power-lust, an unquenchable desire to conquer. Sure, the enemies varied in their style. Some were chatty; others were stealthy. Some were as dramatic as the Titans themselves. Some worked in teams, and many were alone.

But Ragnarok was different. His case had always been the red herring in Robin's file cabinet.

One evening in the Titans Tower, Robin was reorganizing his file system when he encountered the file. It was practically empty, a tribute to the mystery of the entire incident. There were a few battle photos that Cyborg had recorded with his implanted eye with digital clarity, save that for some reason, Cyborg's red camera eye always recorded red eyes on everyone.

Ragnarok had come from the sky, according to the satellite photos. One evening, he had appeared in the clouds high above the city. Strangely, nothing could be found about his existence before his approach to Jump City. At 8:35 exactly on a Tuesday evening, he was there above city. There was no information on Ragnarok's existence at 8:34 that evening or 8:27 or 3:20, a much more reasonable time for an epic battle in robin's view.

Ragnarok's entrance into Jump City was also a quandary. He appeared above the city at 8:35 and by 8:37 he had plummeted (odd, since the team had seen him fly afterward) to the ground, destroying the 2-story abandoned warehouse near the dock where he had landed. The thud from his landing was heard miles away, as was his roar after what was assumed to be standing up from his fall. A few sailors in a fishing boat out in the bay also reported seeing a large black object which they only described as a strange looking piece of metal crash into the sea at the same time. However, the Coast Guard after exhaustive surveys following the Ragnarok incident was unable to uncover anything peculiar. It was later assumed by the Titans to be debris from Ragnarok's uninvited collision into the Harbor Street Warehouse District.

Robin noted in his case file had recorded that the Titans had arrived via the T-Car to the crumbling warehouse 5 minutes after the alarm in the Tower had sounded. He leaned back in his chair and recalled the incident:

The dust was still settling from the initial collision. Everything had presented wrong. Cyborg's sensors had detected a large presence, some 6.5 meters tall within the collapsing building. Raven, upon arrival, had seemed particularly on edge.

Robin had been debating whether or not to enter the now structurally unsound building that was currently minus a roof, but Ragnarok saved them the trouble.

"Something's very wrong in there," Raven had yelled over the crashing and loud roaring which reminded Robin of the sound Beast-Boy made when he was a T-Rex.

"That seems pretty obvious," retorted Beast Boy, glad he was finally able to catch Raven in a verbal gaffe.

"No," said Raven, "There's a presence in there, very strong energy; I can sense it. It's very dark, very foreboding. Oddly, it seems somehow familiar…"

"Sounds like you're sensing a mirror," Beast Boy said with a laugh. Raven shot him a look that would have killed most species, had Beast Boy's specie had a fixed reference point.

"This is hardly the time," said Robin, annoyed at how this was going. "Starfire, see if you can fly over and get a……" The Boy Wonder's words were cut short by a large crash, the sound of a warehouse collapsing as Ragnarok charged through one of the weak warehouse walls, destroyed 12 wooden dock crates, and crushing a barrel of oil under his mighty armored foot. He took a stand about 15 meters from the Titans, gave them a passing glance, and looked up towards the sky from which he had fallen and gave a loud roaring cry that woke up every seagull for three miles, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

The Titans' meeting with Ragnarok would be marked by his appearance. He was essentially in the form of an enormous man, if Ragnarok could have been called that. He was dressed in dark purple armor from head to toe, with no gap visible in it anywhere. A small rectangular gap where his eyes should have been reflected only two small dots flame against blackness. His armor was impressive. Despite his fall into the old warehouse, it glistened in moonlight. It was trimmed in crimson around the collar, the boots, the gauntlets, the belt, and the ribs. When he stepped forward, the ground slightly cracked beneath him. His height was impressive enough, but his body was massive. His forearms, hands, shoulders, and legs commanded the same power that his voice did. His spherical armored head was also monstrous, emphasizing the flaming eyes against the blackness—did he even have a body? Was he a phantom in a cage? All this passed in the Titans' minds as he again yelled into the night sky, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

The Titans were momentarily stunned before Cyborg collected himself, "Who are you?"

Ragnarok turned his gaze from the night sky and looked at Cyborg for a moment. Perhaps finding nothing appealing, he looked upwards again and resumed his mantra, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"What do you want," Robin yelled. "Who are you?"

This time Ragnarok gave the Titans no notice. He yelled his question again then levitated until he was hovering some five meters in the air. He turned his gaze to the harbor and roared. For a brief moment, smoke came from his flaming eyes and a beam of energy emerged from his mighty head which enflamed the nearest (and fortunately unmanned this time at night) commercial freighter. Ragnarok charged through the hull of the freighter without pausing or slowing down, coming out the other side as if he had not even noticed it. He flew back over the warehouse screaming, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Dude, at this rate, he'll destroy the whole dock," piped Beast-Boy.

"The yelling creature is most destructive," said Starfire. "We must stop him, yes?"

"Hey!" yelled Robin. "You trying to make an enemy? Stop this or you'll have one!"

This somehow got Ragnarok's attention. Now noticing the Titans for the first time since Cyborg first yelled at him. The mighty beserker charged at Robin, roaring as he zoomed into the Titan's location. He heaved a mighty fist towards Robin in a massive downstrike. Robin, agile, leaped out of the way as Ragnarok's fist hammered a sizable pothole into the street. Again, he charged at Robin with a fierce left jab down towards the Titans leader. Robin leaped to Ragnarok's left and unleashed a bird-a-rang at the massive creature. It bounced harmlessly off Ragnarok's helmet, who did not even seem to notice its existence.

Ragnarok turned around as the beams of Cyborg's sonic cannon attacked his back. The resulting explosions only seemed to anger the beast as he charged at Cyborg. He was tripped up as a green rhinoceros crashed into his legs. Ragnarok toppled into the street leaving a sizable dent as green starbolts, courtesy of Starfire, cascaded his purple shell.

With a roar, Ragnarok leaped to his feet and swung his forearm around heaving the rhino Beast Boy into Cyborg. Robin launched an exploding disk, which Ragnarok seemed to mind even less than the bird-a-rang with similar results. It was just about then that a large door that had just been recently used on an abandoned warehouse crashed on top of Ragnarok covered with dark energy.

Raven was prepared as Ragnarok threw the door off his body. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she chanted as the wall that door had been attached to rocketed into Ragnarok. This sent him tumbling into a nearby car. As he stood up again, Starfire charged into him with all her Tamaranean strength, rolling Ragnarok through the wall of another warehouse.

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" yelled the creature from within the warehouse. His eyes smoked again and he shot another beam of streaming energy at Starfire, which she barely dodged. "I also know that trick," she yelled returning with eyebeams of her own. These hit Ragnarok, but when the smoke cleared, he was still standing, untouched.

"This guy is tough," said Cyborg, pulling Beast-Boy off of him. "He's taking our best stuff head on."

"Keep attacking him physically," said Raven as she rocketed twelve wooden crates into Ragnarok with her dark energy. "Our energy attacks don't seem to work."

"Who is this guy?" said Beast-Boy. "By the way, avoid his forearms."

Ragnarok strode out of the warehouse through the opening he had created when Starfire knocked him through. He extended his arm to slap a charging Starfire into the warehouse behind him. Robin through a smoke charge, clearing his way to enter the warehouse to help her. "RAGE…RAGE…RAGE."

"What's he saying now?" cried Cyborg. "Who are you?"

"RAGE…RAGE…RAGE" fumed the beast. "I…RAGE…" He shot another flaming beam at Beast-Boy who just missed his own doom by flying over it as a hummingbird. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Who is your enemy?" cried Robin as he emerged from the factory with a dazed, but OK, Starfire.

Ragnarok roared. He roared back up at the night sky. "I…RAGE. I…RAGNAROK. I…RAGING RAGNAROK."

"Raging Ragnarok?" said Beast-Boy, "What's that?"

If Ragnarok heard Beast-Boy, he didn't show it. He extended his right hand into the sky. A purple light shone from it as it shaped itself into a long beam, which materialized into a mighty blade. It shone in the moonlight like his armor. The blade was on one of the sword, the other side of the sword had the same purple metal as Ragnarok's armor with the same crimson trim in a narrow line going up the middle. Ragnarok rose the blade above his head a cut a horizontal slice in front of him. From this cut came an energy wave that drove Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven backwards and across the street where they crashed into the first warehouse's rubble. Ragnarok roared in victory, but his celebration was cut short by Starfire ramming into his back and driving him into the ground. Robin through a freezing disk, covering him witch ice as the two standing Titans raced to aid their teammates.

"Everybody Ok?" yelled Robin.

"No," said Raven, "Beast Boy is sitting on my face."

"Raven, Raven where are you?" yelled Beast-Boy, oblivious to the muttering blue cape beneath him.

"Get off!" yelled Raven as dark energy rocketed Beast-Boy upwards. "This is going to take a lot of meditation to get over."

"Thanks guys, I'm fine thanks for asking," said Cyborg, removing sheet metal from his legs. "Did we get him?"

Ragnarok answered his question as he exploded out of Robin's ice field and hovered in the night sky. He again held his sword high and swang a mighty vertical stroke. This energy wave cascaded through the rubble where Raven and Beast Boy had been standing moments earlier, cutting a path through a second warehouse behind it. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?….RAGE…RAGE…"

"Dude, what is with this guy?" shouted Beast Boy. "Are we not good enough for him?"

"He seems most unsatisfied," said Starfire, "Should I hit him again?"

However, all the Titans were hit by Ragnarok's next horizontal cut with his large blade. The energy wave hit all the Titans, and they were rocketed into the rubble. Ragnarok landed in the rubble and strode toward the pile where they lay.

"Ouch!" said Cyborg, "That one will leave a few dents."

"Here he comes again!" yelled Robin. "Anybody got any ideas?"

"Get off of me!" yelled Raven as she treated Beast Boy to a second jolt upward.

"He just keeps coming." said Cyborg.

"It's very strange," said Raven, "I can only feel two things from him…rage and what I think is great sorrow. There is something magical about him but for all his strength I'm not sure there's much inside his inner person."

"Anything we can do with that?" questioned Robin.

Raven thought for a second. "No. He seems beyond reason or unable to be reasoned with."

"What is he doing down here anyway?" said Starfire. "There is nothing important here unless you value very old metal buildings on Earth."

Ragnarok strode toward the Titans. He raised his sword for a massive stroke but stopped. He lowered his sword and yelled into the night, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"There!" said Raven, "when he talks is when I feel the sorrow the most. He's in inner pain somehow, but I don't feel it when he fights!" She yelled at Ragnarok, "Are you hurt? Why are you sad?"

Ragnarok looked down at Raven. He raised his sword and roared. Raven would not dodge what was coming. He prepared a killing blow. As his sword reached his climax, Raven yelled, "What are you?"

"RAGE…RAGE…RAGING RAGNAROK."

"There's more than rage in you; I can feel it. Why do you do this?"

"I…RAGE."

"Why do you rage?"

"MY ENEMY…WHERE IS MY ENEMY?…RAGNAROK…RAGE…ENEMY?"

"Who is your enemy?"

Ragnarok's sword quivered in his hand. The other Titans were as solid as stone watching this exchange, not wanting to provoke the monster into slamming his sword into the Azarath maiden. "ENEMY…" His question suddenly changed, "WHO ARE YOU?"

The Titans were suddenly stunned. Ragnarok had not deviated from his mantra the whole battle. Suddenly, he had asked Raven a question.

"I am Raven."

"RAVEN?…WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"I don't know who your enemy is? Why are you sad; do you need help?"

"HELP?…WHERE IS MY ENEMY, RAVEN?"

"Who is your enemy, Raging Ragnarok?"

"RAGNAROK? RAVEN? WHO ARE YOU?"

"I am Raven. I come from a place called Azarath, another dimension. Where are you from? Do you need help?"

"HELP? AZARATH? RAVEN?….I…RAGE!"

"You also cry inside."

"HELP…RAVEN…RAGNAROK…RAVEN HELP RAGNAROK?"

"If I can."

"AZARATH RAVEN?"

"Yes."

"I RAGE."

"I know."

"HELP…RAVEN…"

"Yes?"

Raganarok's sword staggered in his hand. It vanished in a small flash of light. He stepped back from Raven quickly, shaking the rubble as he moved. His flaming eyes were fixed on the blue maiden. Finally, Ragnarok fell to his knees and his hands clutched his head. He began making sputtering, short noises.

"What is he doing?" said Robin/

"It looks likes he's breaking" said Cyborg.

"No," said Starfire, "I think he's crying…"

"RAVEN…AZARATH RAVEN….HELP…RAGE…HELP…"

"Yes," said Raven, feeling a mix of curiosity and joy that Ragnarok had put away his sword, "what can I do?"

Raganarok soared into the air, still sputtering cries of inward pain. "I RAGE…I RAGE…HELP RAGNAROK, RAVEN! HELP ME! HELP ME!" He soared high into the sky, a crimson light shining around him as he reached the clouds. The Titans' final glimpses of Ragnarok were of him as he sailed into a cloud. He roared, "HELP ME! RAVEN! AZARATH! IT MUST NOT BE LIKE THIS! I MUST LEAVE!"

And with that, thought Robin at his desk, Ragnarok had vanished. Raven had no theories on what she had done. Clearly, though Robin, she had done something that had caused Ragnarok to not kill her. However, she had no special insight into Ragnarok following their encounter. She just reiterated what she had felt…a blending of rage and sorrow. Truly, it was one of their stranger case files. There was no motive, no explanations.

That had been two years ago, thought Robin. There had been no sign of the Raging Ragnarok since. No one had thought about him. Damage had been minimal, a few pre-fab warehouses easily rebuilt. They had been lucky. And with no reappearance by the creature, Ragnarok was far from anyone's mind.

However, what Robin did not know was that this mystery should not have been so easily dismissed or forgotten. The reappearance of Ragnarok would change their lives forever, Raven's in particular. It was a secret so big that no amount of time could hide it.

And it's coming in Chapter 2 (Please R&R) Thanks for reading a long one.


	2. The Boy With The Blue Hammer

The Bird, The Boy, and the Beast

by Ace234

Chapter 2: "The Man With the Blue Hammer"

Two years after Chapter 1… 

It had been a bad day for the HIVE 5. They had not had a lot of sleep. Mammoth, unknown to them before very early this morning, was a habitual sleepwalker. And as it turned out, when he started sleepwalking, he would crash his massive body through any wall in his way, including Gizmo's favorite wall computer. So when the massive beast-man began a nightly stroll, it was not long before the HIVE's hangout had a few new breezeways between rooms. And to top it off, when Private Hive finally woke him up with a shield throw to the back of the head, a disoriented Mammoth pounded Gizmo and Seemore with his fists for two minutes until he finally regained control of all his faculties.

Breakfast had been no better. Jinx, rather sleep-deprived from the night before, cursed Seemore's eggs into his face, after accusing him of trying to use his heightened vision to see her showering that morning. Seemore could only reply that his lone very bruised eye could barely do anything following Mammoth's rampage the night before. Strangely enough, Mammoth felt well-rested though he was bothered that his teammates would do nothing but glare at him. Gizmo was still morning the loss of 2/3 of his computing power.

And so it was decided that the first business for the HIVE 5 for the morning would be a robbery of a hardware store with multiple objectives:

Obtain material to fix their walls. Jinx refused to stay another night if her walls remained that opened.

Obtain chains to bind Mammoth to bed for all future evenings. This passed on a 4-1 vote with strong feelings on both sides.

See what could be obtained to replace Gizmo's computer.

Seemore wanted to obtain video equipment to increase the place's security while they were fixing the walls. The team was at first skeptical, but when Seemore then noted that his plans would include the shower, the guys voted in favor 4-0. Oddly enough, the majority did not win this argument which may have had something to do with the purple-beam cursed pancakes that quickly laced their faces.

And it was so that 11:00 a.m. on a sunny Thursday morning that the HIVE 5 attacked Jump City Hardware & Electronics. The attack commenced with Private Hive's shield destroying the store window followed by Gizmo rocketing through on his jetpack and grabbing every computer chip he could find. Jinx yelled at Mammoth to grab the chains, which he did with much muttering under his breath. Seemore grabbed some drywall. Jinx helped herself to paint—already having decided to make Gizmo paint all the walls a purple/pink pattern.

It could be said the HIVE 5's day began to get worse when Private Hive's shield, on its return throw missed its mark and struck a passerby. The passerby was young man who was walking by oblivious to the mayhem ensuing next to him. He was a lad of about 17, wearing a large green backpack as one might see a hiker bringing with him on a long journey. He had dark red hair, cut short with only a few stray hairs hanging over his forehead (plus the few dislodged when Private Hive's shield hit him). He fell and hit the pavement with a "Oof!" that was totally ignored by today's villains. Private Hive ran over to him, grabbed the shield, and ran back into the store to scare the customers some more.

The previously mentioned young man, after recovering from being struck from behind by the misthrown boomerang-shield, picked himself off the pavement and brushed himself off. He wore a black windbreaker with a single, bold, think stripe that ran from his right shoulder down to his left hip and back up the opposite direction on its rear side. His pants were also black with a belt of solid linked metal rectangles around them. On the belt was a small metal box attached via a magnet. His shoes were small, black hiking boots with red laces. He wore red gloves with black tips at the knuckles. Under his open jacket was a black T-shirt. After brushing himself off, he looked around as if nothing was wrong, only now nonchalantly turning towards the store behind him.

He turned around and walked toward the store, stopping by where the main window had been. Then addressing, the Hive 5 he calmly said:

"Excuse me? Hey! Hey! Excuse me? Would someone mind explaining to me why I was just knocked to the ground by a flying metal object?"

The HIVE 5 continued their rampage. Gizmo was flying around the room in circles searching for a decent processor. Jinx was deciding whether she liked violet or "new purple" better. Seemore was searching for video equipment. Mammoth was going very slow finding chains, searching for the weakest metal possible. Private Hive was tormenting the cashier with a wedgie.

It slowly dawned on the stranger that the HIVE 5 was looting the place and were not representative of this new city he was in.

"Hey! Hey! Anybody mind telling where the heck I am?"

The stranger said that loud enough that it drew the HIVE 5's attention. They stopped looting and turned around to see who would actually be stupid enough to stop them mid-rampage.

The stranger looked up to notice the store sign, "Okay, Jump City, got it! Now back to my original question: For what reason did you he pointed at Private Hive decide to hit me with that shield?"

This question only stunned the HIVE 5 further. They regularly hurt people without reason. That's what young villains do when they're bored. Gizmo, flew down to hover in front of the stranger, "Oh yeah, Snuzwucker? What's it to you?" A menacing metal hand reached out from his metal pack holding an even more menacing metal hammer.

The stranger looked at Gizmo, the hammer, then Gizmo again. "That's a nice hammer, want to see mine?" He quickly began to close his right fist but before he could close it all the way a small spark of blue energy emerged from the palm of his glove, without warning it materialized into a shining blue mallet about two feet long with a large striking head. The stranger then, without moving his eyes from Gizmo, swung the hammer above his head and planted it firmly on the side of Gizmo's.

Gizmo was sent flying into a nearby display of motor oil. The stranger slowly re-opened his hand and the mallet he was holding disappeared. Private Hive turned toward the stranger yelling, "Now you're gonna get it!" Private Hive launched his shield at the stranger with great force.

The stranger leaped back away from the window as the shield came hurdling through the opening. "This thing again?" he questioned. He raised his hand a blue spark of energy appeared again. It materialized into a round blue shield that glowed with same energy as the spark and the former hammer. Private Hive's shield bounced harmlessly off the stranger's and recoiled to Private Hive's hand. "Looks like mine was better." The stranger re-opened his hand and the blue shield disappeared.

Enraged, Private Hive charged at the stranger, but the stranger closed his hand again and another blue spark appeared. This time it was in the form of a solid blue ball that flew out of the stranger's hand attached to a shining light blue metal chain that was emitted from the stranger's palm. The ball crashed into Private Hive's chest, sending him flying backwards into Seemore, who was secretly lining up the Jinx in the sights of his latest camera find, trying to find the best resolution.

Jinx yelled at the stranger, "You're all out of luck now!" She launched a jinxing wave at him which exploded the road in front of his feet, sending him flying backwards. Jinx laughed. The stranger rolled to the side and threw his backpack to the side. His hands flashed blue energy again and a sharp arrow point emerged from his hand. This point flew at a target above Jinx's head. Like the solid blue ball before it, this blue point was attached to a cord that came from the stranger's hand. The blue point collided with a paint can above Jinx's head, sending canary yellow paint cascading onto the young witch's head and blouse.

The stranger's victory was short-lived, however, as a chain rapped around his arms. Mammoth, unseen by the stranger, had thrown one of the very chains he was disliking to gather around the stranger and was pulling him towards his mighty fists. The stranger, his arms bound to his sides, ducked one punch, dodged a second, but was sent reeling backwards by Mammoth's swinging forearm. Mammoth charged at the stranger and leaped into the air.

Rolling on the ground and unable to get the chains off, the stranger's left hand emitted another spark of blue energy, a where his hand had been a blue rotating circular saw appeared attached to his wrists. He quickly used this to cut through the chains binding him and leaped backwards away from the pouncing Mammoth. As Mammoth leaped in the air again with a fierce roar, seeking to squash the red-haired newcomer, the saw disappeared from the stranger's left hand as both hands began to emit energy. Quick as a flash, both sparks of energy materialized into two large pistons (kind of like a battering ram) where his hands had been. Sticking his right one up, the piston extended powerfully hitting Mammoth square in the stomach and sending the behemoth rolling into the store wall. Private Hive re-emerged charging at the stranger who quickly extended the powerful left piston so that it pummeled Private Hive in the jaw.

"Now I'm really upset," screamed a now very-yellow Jinx as she launched another wave of energy, exploding the road yet again in front of the stranger. "Do you really think you can beat all five of us? Do you really think I'm going to let your get away from DOING THIS TO MY HAIR?" As she screamed, the stranger picked himself off the ground only to discover Gizmo had gotten all the motor oil out of his circuits in time to extend his metal frame so that four large spider-like legs were lifting him high off the ground. From Gizmo's wrist, a laser had appeared. Jinx ran out of the store behind him. "Where's Seemore?" she yelled. Seemore ran out behind her, trying to conceal the mini-camcorder behind his back.

The stranger's right hand glowed again and a blue energy shield took the place of the right piston that quickly blocked a laser shot from Gizmo. The left piston he retracted and re-extended to hit a twirling (and still very yellow) Jinx, who dodged it with a cartwheel. The little witch fired a hexing curse at the stranger sending him rolling towards the opposite end of the road. Seemore launched one of his capture eyes which encased the stranger in the transparent bubble (though his eye was still very sore from Mammoth's assault early that morning).

"This is just great," said the stranger as the HIVE 5 bore down on him. "They're rude and powerful. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed."

"I'll say," said Mammoth, as he charged the stranger head on.

So what happens next? Who is the stranger? Will Jinx ever get the yellow out of her hair? What about Ragnarok—what's up with Chapter 1? How do you dare put a Teen Titans-less chapter in a Teen Titans fanfic? Well, they'll be back! That's what Chapter 3 is for! Please R&R!


	3. The Severing Strata

_Let me take a brief moment to thank my reviewers. Thanks everyone, it's because of good readers that I enjoy writing this. I will not pain you with a long intro. Just to recap from Chapter 2, our as of now unnamed "stranger" is trapped in Seemore's eye-bubble with the HIVE 5 bearing down on him after he tried to stop them from looting. The stranger has shown a remarkable ability to make physical objects in his hands using energy. Also a mystery: the events of Chapter 1, which still has not been connected to the rest of the story._

"The Bird, the Boy, and the Beast"

Chapter 3: The Severing Strata

by Ace234

Seemore's eye-prison was hurled backwards, with the stranger still inside it, into a fire hydrant courtesy of Mammoth's rather bulky fists. The stranger felt the impact of the bubble hitting the fire hydrant, sending water spraying onto the street. "I'm in some trouble here," he thought, "I need to think fast." His train of thought was interrupted by Mammoth, who lifted the bubble above his head.

"Hey, Private Hive," roared the mighty behemoth, "Catch!" Mammoth lifted the stranger's transparent prison and hurled it soccer-style towards his comrade.

"It got it! I got it! I got it!" called Private Hive who extended his arms to catch the bubble. "I got it! I got it!…" just as the bubble was about to enter his arms he jumped to the side sending the bubble crashing into the brick exterior of the hardware store. The bubble crashed through the wall from the force of Mammoth's mighty heave and the stranger, still inside, was hurled past the cashier (still recovering from his earlier wedgie) and into lumber. "Oops!" said the yellow-clad villain, "I guess I don't got it!" The HIVE 5 laughed.

His head seriously throbbing, the stranger righted himself after being thrown into a pile of 2 by 4s. "Ok, I'm through with this thing." His left hand became blue as he again summoned some energy to his palm. The strange light spread to his wrist until in the span of one second, most of his left forearm was covered in the blue energy. With little effort, the stranger mentally focused the energy until it almost instantaneously formed a rather large rotating drill bit that was essentially where his left arm had been from his elbow. He heaved the drill toward the bubble wall as if throwing a punch. The rapidly spinning drill bit bore through the bubble like a knife through hot butter. It separated instantly, and the stranger raced out of the store towards the HIVE 5.

He stopped on the sidewalk staring down his adversaries, "All right, I tried being nice, and I tried being a little forceful. How much of a federal case you want to make this?"

The HIVE 5 only laughed harder. "Listen, boozwooger," mocked Gizmo, "There's 5 of us and while you've gotten a shot or two in; we own you. We're the HIVE 5, and nobody stops us. Just who do you think you are to mess with us, Guzwucker?"

The stranger smiled. "Well, I'm the guy who's gonna punch you in the face." His right arm now glowed blue with energy until it formed a large boxing glove. He raised the glove towards Gizmo who was still high upon his four-legged frame. Suddenly, the boxing glove rocketed out of the stranger's hand towards Gizmo, attached to the stranger's palm by a small chain that seemed to be coming out of his palm. As the boxing glove raced in the air towards Gizmo at high speed, the chain from his palm kept extending with it as if letting out slack from a longer chain inside his arm. The glove landed squat in the middle of Gizmo's nose which sent the evil boy-genius sprawling backwards.

The stranger shook his hand and the tethered-glove disappeared. "My name is the Severing Strata. And you picked a really bad day to tick me off."

"Get'em!" screamed Private Hive as he, Seemore, and Mammoth charged Strata.

Strata 's right hand glowed blue again. This time he made another solid blue ball out of the energy that was attached to a chain. He began swinging the ball and chain over his head. As the three HIVE brutes ran closer, he began to change from swinging the ball from his wrist to rotating in a 360 circle, with the solid sphere moving in an arc around him. As the three HIVE muscles ran closer, he grew the chain at more. Finally, as they were closing in he spun around a final time and releasing more energy from his hand, the ball swelled in size until it formed a sphere the size of Mammoth, a humongous wrecking ball. The ball crashed into the Mammoth, Seemore, and Private Hive with tremendous force sending all three sprawling along the road. The stranger released the chain and the entire wrecking ball structure vanished.

"Why you scuzwreching ballbearing fuzzshuscker, take that!" screamed Gizmo as he fired laser beams from his wrists.

Strata ran towards Gizmo, his right hand forming a blue shield to block Gizmo's laser assault. As he ran under Gizmo's frame, he released the shield, which instantly disappeared. Then both of his hands glowed, and a sword extended from each hand. In one swift blow with each hand, he cut the two front legs of Gizmo's frame sending the boy genius tumbling head-first onto the pavement.

Racing from under the crashing Gizmo, Strata stopped and turned around to watch Gizmo's descent. This was a crucial mistake. For after "wrecking" the larger boys and cutting down Gizmo, he failed to remember the girl who he had dumped yellow paint on earlier. So when Strata was hurled backwards by a pink energy wave, it was no surprise he dropped his swords (which vanished, just like all the other equipment he had "let go" of) and landed on top of Gizmo who groaned again.

"Boys, just not worth the energy used to deal with them," said Jinx, standing over a fallen Strata. "It's just as well I suppose, they were ruining my day anyway!" She waved her hand again as Strata struggled to his feet. He was hurled backwards again, along with Gizmo who had caught the trailing end of Jinx's hexing wave. "Now you, are an interesting one," continued Jinx, who senses that she had the upper hand, "For example, Severing Strata, you found a way to make this horrible day even worse. My hair," said the young witch, pointing to her two pink (with strong overtones of yellow paint) horns, "is a glorious work of art. Do you have any idea how long it takes to style something like this?"

"I imagine you just go with however it sticks up in the morning," mumbled a very bruised Strata.

Jinx found this less humorous than Strata, "Well, I think it's time to give you an education on what happens to people who mess with other people's hair. Indeed, I think you are going to require a girl's delicate touch." Jinx waved her hand again and her next wave sent Strata slamming into the hardware store door.

"And I think you need to cool off," said Strata. From the ground, his right arm glowed and another boxing glove appeared, this launched from his hand, tethered to his palm by a cord. Just as it had hit Gizmo earlier, the boxing glove hit Jinx at high speed sending her crashing into the fire hydrant across the street and soaking her thoroughly.

"I have a pretty good idea who of the HIVE 5 has an anger-management problem," chuckled Strata, limping over to Jinx's position and retracting the boxing glove via the cord so that it was again on his right hand. "Oh and sorry I'm sorry for ruining your hair. Then again you were trying to kill me. All the same I'd like to fix that yellow horn on your head." Strata's left hand glowed blue now and formed a pair of scissors. He reached down with them and cut off Jinx's left horn. "There," he said with a smirk, "No yellow hair there."

"OH YOU JUST DID NOT!" screamed the young witch. Her eyes glowed pink and she let out a huge energy wave that sent Strata rolling backwards. Strata fired his boxing glove at jinx again hitting her square in the chin. He retracted the glove via the cord.

Jinx reeled backwards from the blow. Pink and purple waves coarsed along her body. "So you want to fight do you Strata?" she snickered as potholes in the road starting appearing around her as gravel flew into the air, "Well, that was your shot. Here's mine!" Pink lightning circled Jinx's hands as she opened her fists. Powerful hexing waves cascaded out of her body turning the street to rubble as the waves cut a wide swath through the road. Strata transformed his glove to a shield again to block the waves, but the hexing forces jinxed his shield away and he was hit squarely in the chest by Jinx's onslaught. He rolled backwards, injured and was covered by the gravel from the demolished pavement. The waves continued past Strata and hit Gizmo who had begun struggling to his feet from the last hit he had taken. The evil boy genius was knocked down again. The hardware store's foundation was wrecked and the front of the store caved in; the cashier barely escaped out the back entrance.

Strata struggled to get up. He was hurt. Jinx's eyes glowed in rage and energy waves ran up and down her body. "You still want more?" she cackled, "It's time to put you out of your misery." She raised her right hand for a final mighty wave. "Your shields can't block my curses."

Strata took stock of his surroundings. The road was a chunk of rubble. Gizmo was out cold. The other three HIVE members were still sprawling along the road from his own mighty wrecking ball attack. He was very low on fighting energy, and he was pretty sure he had a cracked rib (or two). Also, a pale girl who was soaking wet and covered in yellow paint with half her hair-set missing and who could use curses that destroyed his weapons was about to curse him into oblivion.

Strata came to three conclusions:

1. He was really screwed.

2. It was a bad time of year to visit Jump City.

3.. Dying to a soaked witch-girl with yellow painton her blouse was probably a really bad way to die.

Jinx laughed, "Well, at least one good thing came of this rotten day, I am going to squash some do-gooder." She prepared to fire.

* * *

It has been said by some that life is merely an existence of strange coincidences. If this is so, then everything that happens to everyone is merely happenstance or luck. Jinx was a master of projecting very bad luck. Strata was definitely suffering from it. However, Jinx's charms don't really explain what happened next. Some logical explanations could be made for the following events: Perhaps the fight had gone on too long. Perhaps Jinx's powers so heightened in her rage affected her as well. Perhaps Strata was just due a break. He didn't care. But if life is a series of chances, Strata should gamble for a fortune.

Because, it was at that moment that a green starbolt, the epitome of righteous fury, crashed into Jinx's head. Jinx was sent rolling into the rubble as Starfire swooped down into the fray. Strata took all that very well as a flying girl shooting energy was just another part of his crazy day; it all made perfect sense to him—why shouldn't an alien girl swoop down from the heavens to save him?

Jinx yelled at Starfire, "This isn't your fight, Titan!"

Strata responded, "Oh yes it is!"

Starfire directed her attention towards Jinx, "You will stop causing a mess!"

Jinx said, "Oh yeah? How you going to stop me?" She shot a powerful energy wave into the air knocking Starfire backwards. Jinx was sent sprawling as a piece of rubble surrounded in dark energy collided into her. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" said Raven as she descended to the ground. Jinx looked about, "Guys, time to wake up!"

Hearing her voice, Seemore, Private Hive, and Mammoth struggled to their feet. Gizmo was still out cold from Jinx's last assault.

'Titans go!" yelled Robin as the three male Titans ran forward. Private Hive launched his shield at Robin who deflected it with a bird-a-rang. A second one hit Private Hive in the head.

"They've been pretty busy here," said Cyborg surveying the road. He dodged a punch from a charging Mammoth. Cyborg tried an uppercut but Mammoth leaped backwards. Mammoth then charged Cyborg and rammed him with his shoulder. Mammoth leaped on top of Cyborg and raised a fist. He was stopped, however, by Strata who hit him over the head with a blue sledgehammer he had quickly formed with the energy from his hands. Mammoth was knocked aside.

"They're pretty feisty," said Strata, "But they're hurting."

"Who's hurting who?" yelled Seemore as he shot a laser beam out of his eye at Strata. Strata quickly converted his hammer into a blue shield to block the attack. Seemore was quickly sent flying by a green ram, courtesy of Beat Boy.

Gizmo finally woke up. "Hoondsticks! It's the Titans!" He re-activated his jet pack and began soaring above our heroes. Gizmo activated his hologram projector and five copies of him appeared in the sky. Lasers began raining down from above.

Raven protected the group with a dark shield. "We have to find the real one." Cyborg ran out from behind the shield firing his sonic cannon—he connected with one but it vanished. Robin leaped around the other side throwing an exploding disk, it made another hologram disappear. Strata fired a blue sphere into the air tethered to a chain that emitted from his palm. His shot connected with another hologram.

It was Starfire who broke through. She fired her eyebeams at the real Gizmo who was sent spiraling to the ground. "Cheese it!" he roared.

The HIVE 5 took off down the road. Jinx paused long enough to fire a hexing wave at the ground. Gravel from the rubble shot into the air in a large dust cloud. When the air cleared, the HIVE 5 was gone.

"Drat, they got away!" yelled Beat Boy, unhappy that he'd only had time to get one animal in.

"Don't worry," said Robin, "We'll get them next time. They never know when to quit. By the way, did Jinx looked like she was covered in yellow paint?"

"She was," said Strata, "I had something to do with that."

The Titans only now noticed the newcomer. He had fought alongside them so seamlessly that they had not noticed. "Hey new guy!" said Cyborg, "Thanks for the assist."

"My pleasure," said Strata. "And thank you," he continued nodding towards Starfire, "For saving my hide."

"You are most welcome, new friend," smiled Starfire, "I have noticed that when Jinx attacks something she is usually attacking something good so I thought it best to help."

"And who are you?" questioned Raven, "I'm surprised we haven't heard of someone with your powers like you around here before."

"Well, I've just arrived in town," replied Strata. "I'm the Severing Strata, though everybody just calls me 'Strata.' "

"How did you do that thing with the hammer," said Beast Boy, "that was cool."

"Well, " said Strata, "That's my talent. I can make almost any object with my internal energy. I make energy into solid matter see…" He held out his right hand and it glowed blue and he changed it into a variety of shapes: a cube, then a flower, then a blue butterfly that was tethered to his hand by a fine blue wire, he guided circles around Starfire's head which made her giggle. "The only catch is whatever I make is light blue like my energy. Also, I can only maintain the object as long as I am touching it. So, when I fire stuff away from me, it's always tethered to a cord, chain, or something else." He released the cord and the butterfly disappeared, "See? Like that. When I let go, it goes away."

Robin queried him next, "So you can make anything?"

Strata answered, "Well, there are some natural size limitations. I've had a lot of trouble making stuff approaching the size of cars—that's pretty draining. Also, there are some complexity issues—I can't make a working motor or a nuclear bomb or anything like that. Simple objects, ya know? Hey, I've always got an umbrella when I need one."

Raven asked next, "So where are you from?"

Strata stuttered a little here, "Nowhere important. Somewhere far away. I'm just a wandering traveler in search of a new start." He walked over to where he laid his backpack. He put it back on. "I keep moving a lot; it's kinda by necessity. I don't really have a place to call home. I stay at shelters and YMCAs in towns where I land—pick up work here and there."

Five on Starfire's nine stomachs gurgled. "Ooo!" she said, "My tums-tums are telling me it's time for mustard and gravy."

"I'm always up for food," said Cyborg.

"Sounds like a plan," said Robin.

"Ooo! Strata! Why don't you join us?" said Starfire. "Can't he Robin?"

Robin smiled, "Well, we do owe you one. Sure, join us for lunch at the tower?"

"The tower?" asked Strata.

"You'll see." said Beast Boy.

"Just behave yourself," said Raven.

"Don't worry," said Strata, "I take my food seriously."

"I take mine with sauerkraut and peanut butter," chimed Starfire.

"You guys really are an odd bunch, you know that?" said Strata.

**To be continued…….**

_Well, how about that? The HIVE 5 escaped, but the stranger, the Severing Strata, has hooked up with the Titans for the time being. What could this become? And what about Ragnarok—what's up with him? Will this story ever reconnect with its first chapter? Wait and see…many more mysteries and surprises to come. Please R&R. Frankly, after reading my 3,000+ word entry here; I think I'm due some response.  
_


	4. Of Mustard and Mysteries

_To my previous reviewers I offer my "thanks" for your generous comments. For the delay in this update I am sorry, I am balancing my desires as a writer with the responsibilities of being a full-time teacher and student, but I assure you I am not about to give up on this story or my readers. However, I will not delay you any longer with an extensive introduction. We now return to the Titans who have arrived at the Tower with the enigmatic Strata in tow._

"The Bird, the Boy, and the Beast"

Chapter 4: Of Mustard and Mysteries

Strata had no idea how fortunate it was that Robin decided to cook lunch today. Robin feared Starfire's "exotic" cooking would eventually lead led to the genetic mutating of the team, and Raven had yet to prepare anything edible on the rare occasion she decided to cook for her teammates. Beast Boy's tofu was uneatable to anyone but Beast Boy, and Cyborg always tried to serve the youngest Titan pork chops, or steak, or a ham and cheese—all of which had resulted in nasty confrontations.

So when Robin decided to grill a few hamburgers (soy burger for BB), Strata had no idea that stars must have been aligned in his favor for this midday meal. The traveler was more intrigued by Starfire's drinking out of the bottle of mustard. Starfire was likewise intrigued by Strata's ability to form his own "blue energy" utensils with his powers. "See?" said Strata, when Starfire stared at his blue fork, "I never drop one on the floor."

"I find the Earth tradition of using tools on the food most intriguing," said Starfire. "On Tamaran we all gather around the table at once at jointly use our powers to rip apart our food."

"All at the same time?" said Strata.

"Yes," said Starfire, "On Tamaran we find it is a good way to take ownership of one's food. But lately," she paused a moment, "I have been trying out the knife and the fork."

"Trying something new?" queried Strata, who was still gazing at the mustard.

"No," said Robin, approaching the table with a plate of tomatoes, "We made her change after she destroyed our last dining room."

"Earth tables are most delicate," said Starfire.

"Yes…yes…they are that," stammered Strata unsure of what to say. This evoked a smile from BB and Cyborg.

"Would you like some mustard, friend Strata?" asked Starfire, offering the bottle she had put her straw into.

"No, No, thank you Starfire," responded Strata, whose eyes had just opened very wide, "I'll think I'll just stick with ketchup today." He reached for his burger on his plate only to find Silkie, who burped. "Hey!" yelled Strata, "what's this?"

"That's silkie," said BeastBoy in between bites of his soy burger, "He's sort of become the team mascot."

"And not by popular choice," muttered Raven as Strata quickly made another burger while keeping a close eye on the mutant silkworm. He moved over to the other side of the table next to Raven. The dark girl eyed Strata with a sole-piercing stare, "We don't have guests often."

Strata turned towards Raven, "Well, thanks for having me." Raven said nothing and returned to sipping her tea. Strata thought that this side of the table might not be any more hospitable then the other side. Fortunately, Robin sat down next to Starfire and set Silkie on the ground.

Cyborg was the next to speak, towards Robin, "So, what's up for the rest of the day?"

Robin paused for a moment, "We already got our combat practice in this morning thanks to Strata…" The newcomer smiled at this mention. "…We pretty much have the rest of the day free."

"What were you planning on doing today, Strata?" chimed BeastBoy, "you know, before the HIVE 5 decided to hit you on the head."

"Honestly, I don't know. The entire point of my trip was to get to this city. I'm not really sure what I was going to do. I'll probably check into the Y or something."

"How can there be a point to your trip if you don't have a reason for being here?" questioned Raven.

"Aw, lay off the guy, Raven," said Cyborg, "We don't need the guy to give us his life story."

"Are you sure about that?" said Raven with a disapproving tone in Cyborg's direction. She muttered a simple word that had no meaning to Strata at all, "Terra."

"To be honest, Raven…that's your name right? Raven?" interjected Strata, "If I had a point to being here, I couldn't exactly be an aimless wanderer, now could I?" Raven said nothing. "I came here because I move around a lot. I'm a traveler. I move about; it's what I do."

"So you have no purpose in life other than to keep moving?" said Raven, "that doesn't sound like much of a life."

"How sad," said Starfire.

"How suspicious," said Raven.

Strata smiled again, "Hey, I'm not completely purposeless. I have a knack for being where I need to be. The way I see it life is full of experiences. Sometimes you just have to keep moving, you know? I'm trying to search for my own new way of life. Essentially, nowhere is home to me. Or, if you prefer, the whole world is my home. The world needs people like me, people who aren't fixed in stone or locked into one place. People who can be places when they need to be there."

"But do you need to be here?" said Raven. Strata simply shrugged his shoulders.

"So…you're searching for yourself?" asked Robin.

"In a way, I suppose I'm searching for a way to get away from myself." He looked at Raven, "In that way, I can't really blame you for wanting to get away from me."

This admission stunned Raven for a brief moment. "You seem all right to me," said Cyborg.

"Yes," said Starfire, "Strata, you seem like a good person as you helped stop the HIVE 5."

Strata stared into his soda, "Thanks for saying that, it helps," he said. "You guys seem like good ones." He looked up at Starfire and then slowly turned his gaze toward Raven, "Sometimes we don't always like being who we are or being where we are from. Where are you guys from?"

"I'm from Tamaran," said Starfire.

"Starfire's princess of Tamaran," said Robin, "BeastBoy, Cyborg, and I are from Earth."

"Royalty?" said Strata, turning his head towards Starfire, "Should I bow?"

"NO!" giggled Starfire, "I am just a Titan."

Strata chuckled and turned towards Raven, "And what about you?"

"Somewhere you've never heard of." She sipped her tea.

Strata chewed on the end of a French fry, "Well, that's something we have in common."

Raven turned toward him with a raised eyebrow, "What? More mysteries?"

"I had a home once. I suppose most people start off with one at some point"

"And where is it?" said Cyborg, who was also becoming intrigued by their visitor.

"No, I HAD a home," said Strata, "There is no 'is' about it." He looked and muttered down towards his burger, "There was…a war. Now it's not there."

"Are you from the Middle East?" said Robin with some surprise, Strata had not struck him as a person from war-time countries.

"No, no, nothing like that. Nothing so…simple. I was a soldier in defending my home country from an invading evil tyrant bent on total destruction." His eyes glazed over, "It didn't go well."

"You lost?" asked Beast Boy, not aware of how much this question hurt their guest.

"If only…" muttered Strata. "That might have been better then…what happened. Let's say there was an ugly stalemate after a lot of anguish. So, I don't have a home."

"I…I'm sorry," said Raven, who was starting to feel somewhat uneasy about her earlier probing—but not her suspicion.

Strata dismissed her apology with her wave. "We all have our…dark memories. You meant nothing; don't worry about it. If it helps, our efforts did help save a portion of another nearby place, ravaged by that same tyrant. My comfort is that we did save some of our neighbors."

They all sat in silence for a few moments.

Robin was next to speak, "Say, Strata, think you can postpone your wandering for one night and crash here with us? I feel I still owe you for helping us today; we have a spare room. It would beat the downtown Y at any rate."

Strata smiled at the Titan leader, "Thanks, that would be nice. It's hard to find a decent bed lately."

"Excuse me," said Raven, rising from the table, "It's time for me to go meditate." She walked towards her room.

"Thanks for having me, everybody," said Strata.

"No problem," said Cyborg, "I'll show you where you can drop your backpack."

* * *

Cyborg left Strata in one of the spare rooms to unwind. Strata set his large green backpack on top of the bed in the plain room. He looked around. The large room was quite bare save the white-sheeted bed and the oak bedside table. A small lightly-stained hard-back wooden chair accompanied a clashing cherry desk that was bare on its top. "I guess they really don't have visitors much," muttered Strata. "Oh well, any cave in a storm." He strode towards the west-facing window and gazed out into the bay. "A guy could get used to a city like this. He lightly touched his fingertips against the pane, gazing at the horizon as if it was an old friend paying him a visit. "Home," he whispered, though there was no one to hear, "It reminds me so much of home." His gaze strolled from the waning sun towards the water. "But it reminds me of things more recent, too." At this he paused and removed his hand, "Well, Strata, ol' boy," he talked to himself, "it seems your life's about to come full-circle. However this next challenge comes out; it's going to be one hell of a fireworks show." He smiled at himself and sat on the bed. "Either way this could be the end of my travels; I'm officially out of places to go," he thought. His gaze turned back towards the window. "But, there's still hope…however small." He removed the small metal box that was magnetically attached to his belt. He opened it and from its three contents removed his most treasured one, a photograph. "Dear Alisha," he thought as he gazed at the picture, "one way or another I'm going to finished what was started."

Strata returned the picture to the small box which he returned to his belt. "Listen to me," he thought, running a hand through his fiery hair, "pondering like a monk or something—time for a book." He reached in his pack for one of his few books that he traveled with. "Let's see," he said rumbling around for a title, "I finished War of the Worlds again yesterday…Okay, here's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; I've only read that one like what, five times? I really need to get a new book or two. Still, it beats reading For Whom the Bell Tolls again." He laid his head on the pillow that Cyborg had left with the book in his hands. "Let's find out who Hyde is again."

* * *

"I still don't trust him," said Raven, "we still don't know who he is." She gazed at the team from her spot on the couch. The Titans were meeting in the main room as Strata read from his novel.

"Aw, come one Raven; he saved my tail versus the HIVE 5 back there," said Cyborg, "and a guy who can hit Gizmo that hard with an energy hammer can't be all bad."

"Yet the guy's clearly troubled," said Robin, "You saw how he got during lunch."

"That's just 'cause Raven was giving him the third degree," said Beast Boy. "Come on Raven can't you just be nice for once?"

"Nicety is earned, not given" replied the dark Titan, "And, Beast Boy, if you haven't noticed, everyone we seem to meet comes with a price." She rolled her eyes at the shape-shifter, "Do I need to bring HER up again?"

Beast Boy glowered at Raven, "No you don't," he muttered, pouting.

"I like the Strata," said Starfire, "he has been nothing but nice and friendly. I think it would be nice to try to be friends to him first, especially since he does not seem to have any."

"Guys, we did invite him to stay here tonight," said Cyborg, "we can't exactly go kicking him out now. As you said, Robin, we owe him that much."

"I don't see how we can just be this suspicious of everyone we meet," said Starfire, "will we never have anymore friends?"

"I don't see how we can be this blindly trusting of everyone we meet," said Raven, "are we to assume we won't ever get betrayed again?"

"No one's saying keep him here forever," said Beast Boy, "it's just one night."

"Unfortunately," said Raven, "the way you all are starting to like him I fear it may quickly become more than that."

"I'll keep an eye on him tonight," sad Cyborg, "I don't need much sleep."

"You sleep first then," said Raven, "I feel like meditating late tonight; I'll wake you up when it's your turn."

"It's settled then," said Robin. "Strata stays as we planned but under watch. Raven will take the first half of the night, followed by Cyborg."

TO BE CONTINUED…..

* * *

_What's up with Strata's "home"? Why is he out of "places to go"? What else is in that metal box? Who is Alisha? Is Raven paranoid or is there something sinister to the Titans' newfound guest? And what the heck happened to Ragnarok in Chapter 1? That's what Chapter 5 is for! Please R 2,300 word updates earn at least that much. Thanks for reading my story?_


	5. Moonlight Rendevouz

_Great to see you chose my story. Chapter 5 is now up with some serious plot implications! It's a long update, but I've really tried to make it worthy so go get a drink and enjoy the mystery as it unfolds! But enough of the intro…When we left the Titans, Strata has retired to his guest room while the Titans, due to Raven's suspicions about their houseguest, are planning to keep Strata under surveillance overnight._

"The Bird, The Boy and The Beast"

Chapter 5: Moonlight Rendevouz

Strata awoke from his nightmare panting in a cold sweat. He was at first extremely disoriented as he looked around the room. The bare walls, the mismatched desk set—none of it was familiar to him. "Alisha!" he called out, "Alisha, are you here?" He looked around the room quickly trying to remember what had happened. The fires from his dream, no—his memory, still burned in the back of his mind. He could see his house crumbling in his memory from the fire as a crowd of people…no….monsters stood around him laughing. It scared him to realize that he was laughing with them.

After a few seconds of such disillusion, he caught sight of his green backpack laying at the foot of the bed. Sitting up, he gazed out the westward window as his short-term memory returned to him. He reached over to the bedside table and looked at his watch. The timepiece read 4:00 A.M. He placed his watch back on the table and stared out of the window gazing at the full moon and the dark water of the bay. Strata examined the stars, secretly hoping one would swoop down from the sky and carry him towards heaven.

Deciding that he had no chance of getting back to sleep now, Strata got out of bed and stood up. Glancing around the room, he decided that he needed some air. Walking over to his backpack, he reached into his contents and pulled out some clothes. Strata only had three changes of clothes—ironically, all the same red and black patterns he had worn yesterday (when he had spare money, which was rare, they had been all he could find that he liked at Goodwill). He put his watch on his left wrist and reattached his small metal box to the magnet on his belt. After finishing redressing and lacing up his black hiking boots, he strode out into the dark corridor of Titans Tower.

When in the hallway of the Titans' home, Strata was initially presented with a problem. He was not sure exactly how to go about taking a walk. He was not sure that he would be able to leave the Tower and re-enter, given the complex security system which he did not fully understand. Sure, with his powers there were few truly "locked" doors to him, but the Titans had fed him some good hamburgers, not counting the one that Silkie had devoured, and he did not want to damage the real estate of his fine hosts.

The lack of knowledge regarding the front door led Strata to return to the bare room. It was then he remembered the west window. Sure enough, it opened. A casual glance downward reminded him that he was at least eighty feet above the rocky ground, but that was no obstacle to him. Strata could use his powers to form a rope or grappling cable or wench and lower himself to the ground. Later, he could use his powers to re-enter through the window. "It would take a pretty accurate shot with my grappling chain," thought Strata, "but I could pull it off; I have been practicing."

As Strata, stuck his head out the window, which opened sideways, and gazed towards the ground, he pondered on how best to repel to reach thr ground. "I could try repelling down the side," he pondered, a thought which excited him—repelling down a giant T above a bay, but decided against as he did not know what window he might bump into. He wasn't sure whether he was high enough to attempt making a parachute, "Might drift into the bay anyway," he thought. "Perhaps I could make a giant pole and slide down it? Or should I try bunjee jumping?"

As Strata looked around, he reminded himself that the roof of Titans Tower was only fifteen feet above him. "I could just go up there," he thought, "a walk on the roof might beat this 80 foot drop anyway." He pressed his hands against the outer wall of the tower. His hands glowed blue as he summoned his powers. A blue energy stream formed from his hands as Strata used his ability to form objects—as long as he was touching them—to send the energy stream cascading above the lip of the Titans' roof. He focused his mind on completing his construction and the energy organized itself into a blue ladder, attached to the wall above his window by means of spikes stuck into the tower's wall. Two grappling cables at the topmost point of the ladder fixed on the roof's lip completed Strata's construction. "Better than any ol' fire escape," chuckled Strata to himself. He began climbing his blue ladder, always keeping one hand on it to make sure his energy construction stayed solid and did not disappear. "I really need to develop on some kind of elevator, though," he mumbled.

As Strata completed his short climb to the tower's roof, he gazed out at the bay behind him. It was a beautiful night. The full moon provided lots of light for climbing, and the slight breeze made the exercise refreshing. Upon reaching the roof, he planted his feet on the top, removing his left hand from the ladder last. When Strata's palm lost contact with the ladder's topmost rungs, the entire constroction instantly vanished without so much of a sparkle or a shimmer.

Now with his feet firmly planted on his goal. Strata breathed the night air in deep. "This is relaxing," he thought. He gazed around the roof. "Not much up here," he observed. There was some standard "roof stuff," vents for the central climate unit, some storage crates labeled "surplus T-Ship parts," and the door to the roof from which Strata guessed was a stairway leading back down into the tower. He noticed that the door was slightly ajar. He chuckled to himself as he noticed it, "Shame I didn't think of that earlier; that would have made my climb up here a lot simpler." He needed to remind himself to recall the door for later use. "Looks like someone got lazy with the doors going back downstairs," he thought.

As Strata meandered around the Titans' large roof he gazed out into the city in the east. He could see the piers of the docks to the northeast and the city center laid straight east. He could see the tall office buildings of downtown in the business. Some seagulls were nesting on a garbage barge that was approaching from the north. As Strata gazed his eyes towards the far southwest corner of the tower, he took a step back and realized why the roof door was ajar—he was not alone! He could see a figure levitating near the edge and could barely make out the words the figure was saying, "Azarath Metrion Zynthos…Azarath Metrion Zynthos."

Raven had decided her term of guard duty would consist of her meditating on the roof. It seemed logical to her. She could meditate upon the most peaceful and remote location of the Tower, the southwest roof corner away from the roof access. Guard duty to her was simple: she had no need to patrol the Tower manually as she could sense most of what was happening inside it anyway with her powers. She also had had no intention of waking Cyborg. She didn't trust Strata, not one bit. "Cyborg's too biased by his earlier escapade with Strata by the HIVE 5," she had thought, "This needs to be done right, and I am the only one who can do it. For all we know, that entire battle with the HIVE was a trap to lure us to like him. Strata could be a HIVE member; he seems to be the right age." So, when she volunteered for the first half of guard duty, she had fully intended to do both halves and spend the night meditating and cut out some meditation time tomorrow for naps.

Unfortunately, not even the disciplined Raven was perfect in her meditations. After several hours of no events her thoughts had slipped into deep meditation where consciousness was cruising the higher astral plane for peace. Had she been able to retain her basic senses for a few hours longer, she probably would have sensed Strata climbing up his blue ladder on the side of the tower and events would have gone much differently. But no, fate intervened, and it was now Strata who was observing Raven while her intentions had been the opposite.

When first seeing the dark girl at the opposite end of the Tower, Strata was unsure what to do. His conversation with her at lunch yesterday had proven to him that she did not trust him. Yet, he was drawn in by what would lead such a person to be out here meditating at four in the morning. He laughed inwardly, "Probably the same thing that led ME out here in four in the morning." So Strata, never one to skirt danger, quietly walked up behind Raven until he was only a few feet behind and right of the girl.

"It takes a special person to meditate under the moonlight. It's funny isn't it? At night, our perspectives on everything changes, and many people tend to be less calm then they were before. But here we are under this full moon. It's calming isn't it? But here we are in the deepest night, when we should feel the loneliest. But I don't feel lonely."

Raven's deep meditation was torn into pieces by the time Strata had uttered the word "special." Strata's speech, while meant to be calming, was having the opposite effect on Raven, because in moments too brief to be measured by any clock Raven had to come to grips with a few harsh realities that had suddenly appeared to her that had not been present on the astral plane:

She had totally failed as a guard girl.

Even worse, her charge had snuck up behind her.

Perhaps worst of all, he was trying to connect with her.

So perhaps the accomplishment Raven matching Strata's calm in her response should be viewed as quite a feat, considering the fact that she now had three new reasons to really not like the newcomer.

"Have you considered it might be because you're NOT alone right now?" she replied, using her all her might to show as little emotion as possible in her statement. "Also, do you enjoy sneaking up on people and interrutping their private thoughts with your own pointless ramblings in the middle of the night?"

Strata smiled, "I'm having fun right now."

Raven sneered, "I'm glad for you. Please leave."

"Do you mean go back downstairs or leave forever?"

"Yes."

"Sorry, I'm not about to let you hoard all the good moonlight."

Raven glowered at that retort. She considered leaving herself but decided that this might be her best opportunity to interrogate the stranger. "This early in the morning, he might make a poor tactical disclosure," she thought. She also considered blasting him with dark energy to the other side of the roof, but she considered that she did not want to break her meditated calm right now. So still levitating and still not turning around to face him she calmy quieried, "What do you want?"

"You don't trust me do you?"

"No," she said that with no hesitation or regrets.

"That's good," said Strata with equally no hesitation or regrets, "I often don't trust me either."

"If you're trying to make a joke, you're doing about as well as Beast Boy."

Strata chuckled at this, "Heaven forbid the dark lady crack a smile I see. That's fine; I'll smile enough for the two of us."

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted some air, bad dream and all."

"No, why are you here in Jump City?"

Strata gazed up at the moon. "To look at the moon."

Raven finally turned her gaze towards Strata, albeit only out of the corner of her right eye, "That's the same moon as anywhere."

"No, no, it's not. This moon is special. It's filled with hope."

Raven decided to humor him, "How so?"

"You're meditating under this moon. That's what different. There's no Raven under the moon in Steel City or Gotham or Metropolis or any other city. There's no Raven there. Raven is under this moon at this time on this tower. That's why I'm here. This moon has hope."

This finally got Raven's full attention. She turned her head towards Strata, "Quit dodging the question. You're not here to see me. I don't make the moon or anything else hopeful. Now why are you here?"

"I already told you I'm looking for hope."

"You said you were here to look at the moon."

"It's pretty much the same thing to me. Besides how can you be sure that you don't give hope? Why are YOU here Raven?"

Raven glowered at Strata. He was being so dodgy. "I'm not a person who is associated with hope. My life has been about waiting until the end of the world. I'm here to do good until the end."

"We have that in common then."

"Which part?"

"Yes."

"Shut up."

"So when's this end of the world supposed to be?"

"Actually, it already happened. We stopped it."

"Kind of an ineffective apocalypse if you ask me."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"No, really, apoacalypses, I assure you I have experience with them. I was even a part of one once,."

"The war in your home."

"Yes, that apocalypse."

"Did your world end?"

"For me it did."

"Is that really an apocalypse? I'm talking about galaxy-destroying evil here."

"Me too."

Raven sniffed. He was so mysterious. "What country did you say you were from?"

"What country did you say YOU were from, Raven?"

"Somewhere you've never heard of."

"We have that in common then."

"What?"

"I'm from somewhere you've never heard of."

"How can you be sure that I've never heard of it?"

Strata chuckled again, "Because Raven, I haven't told you about it." He sat down next to Raven on her right side in the far corner of the tower. "The moon really is hopeful tonight. You give off good hope vibes."

"You're impossible."

"That might be the most true thing ever said about me, Raven."

"You're hopeless."

"No, sorry, THAT was the most true thing ever said about me."

Raven lowered herself to the ground. She wanted an eye-view of Strata to see if she could catch him in a lie. "Okay, hopeless boy, tell me this; if you were part of an apocalypse, why are you still alive?"

Strata stopped smiling. He turned his gaze from Raven and stared south, "I was the unlucky one."

"You said you were a soldier at lunch."

"That's right, I was a soldier."

"You said you were trying to get away from yourself, why?"

Strata turned his gaze toward Raven. "I was a little too good at my job."

"You had to kill a lot of enemies defending your home?"

"My crime is not that I killed people; it's that I failed my final mission."

"Mission?"

"Raven, let me ask you something. Do you have any siblings?"

Annoyed that she still did not have a real answer from him, Raven decided to keep humnoring Strata in spite of how much she hated the subject of her family; he was opening up somewhat. "No, no real family. She lowered her head at this. My family is very…different."

Strata reached with his right hand to his belt. He removed the small metal box from the magnet. He barely opened it and removed the picture he had gazed at in his room earlier. Raven could hear other things moving in the box but could not see them. Strata handed Raven the picture, which she took and stared at.

The photograph was wrinkled from constant handling. Raven could tell that it had been handled many times in the manner she was now holding it. The photograph was simple. There was a large tree, and in front of the tree stood Strata with a huge smile on his face. Sitting his shoulders was a young girl, no older than eight, with bright green hair and dressed in a simple white jumpsuit with pink fabric around the wrists, neckline, waist, and pant cuffs. She had a huge smile on her face and was giving Strata "bunny ears" with her fingers. Raven had to smirk at the picture; it was strange seeing this person next to her so consumed in thought that happy. "What is this?" she asked.

"Alisha," said Strata with a touch of anguish in his voice. "That girl on my shoulders is Alisha, my little sister."

"Your sister? I don't understand."

"That picture is my most prized posession. It's all I have left."

"All that's left?"

"Alisha is dead, Raven. I'm the only survivor of our home country. That picture is my only home. I search for hope because of her."

"You search for hope FOR her; I thought you just said she was dead."

"She is dead; Alisha is lost to me. I search for hope for people like Alisha because of her, because I couldn't give her any when she needed it most. Alisha died in one of the final stages of the war. The final assault from the enemy came to a place where we lived together. I couldn't save her."

Raven was stunned by this omission. Perhaps Strata's mystery about his past was only to hide a very deep pain. She looked at him closely. His whole demeanor had changed. He was slumped over as he sat, staring no longer at the city, her, or even the moon but at the concrete base of the roof. "I'm…I'm…so sorry Strata."

"Thanks, Raven."

"But are you sure that you aren't putting too much of this on yourself? I used to think like that. I was going to be the downfall of the entire world—it was prophecy made even before I was born. I was raised by monks to expect that I, without any recourse to stop it, would bring about the destruction of Earth. But…while the prophecy came true, there was hope when I didn't even see any."

"See you do have hope in you, Raven. But no, I live now because of what I did AFTER Alisha died."

"I don't understand."

"Let's just say a few of our neighbors that we saved developed a secret weapon to fight our unstoppable enemy. I was supposed to manage that weapon, to operate it during its implementation."

"And?"

"Partial success, we slowed the enemy down but the weapon is now as dangerous as the enemy."

"But why are you here?"

"I'm a jailer, Raven, a warden of a jail that only holds one prisoner."

"But you're a wanderer, you must be a pretty sorry jailer."

This made Strata laugh, "Yes, yes, I am a bad jailer. I'm not good at my job."

"You're supposed to be guarding the tyrant who destroyed your home?"

"No, not him. He had…other consequences then my prison."

"But then what?"

Strata moved closer to Raven, examining her face as if looking for hidden treasure that was somehow behind her complexion, and he was just looking for the "x" that marked the spot on her treasure map. A breezee blew in from the bay. It displaced one of Raven purple hair's that fell into her face. Strata reached up with his right hand and touched Raven's cheek. Then with his left, he pushed the hair back into place. Then he backed away to where he had been sitting before he had moved in closer. "You really do have hope in your face; I thought you should know that."

Raven could not remember the last time her heart beat this fast, "Why are you a jailer?"

"I'm a jailer because no one else could be."

"Why?"

"Only three people survived the battle of my home. One was me, the other was the evil tyrant, and he other was my prisoner. I'm traveling because of him."

"Did he work for the tyrant?"

"No, he did not."

"But you said that you were the only person from your home to survive the war?"

"Yes, I did. That was no lie."

"And your prisoner did not work for the enemy?"

"No, not at any point, he hates the tyrant, almost as much as I do."

"So he wasn't neutral?"

"No way, he couldn't do 'neutral' with ten flags of peace and Swiss citizenship."

"But then, why here?"

"I told you, this moon is different."

"Not that stuff to flatter me again."

"It's not flattery; it's truth, and that truth is hope. It's one in a million, last ditch, probably screwed anyway hope."

Raven was not sure how to take Strata returning to that off-topic subject. "Is your prisoner roaming free? Was their a jailbreak?"

"No, but there's going to be one."

"Can't you stop it if you know one's coming?"

"Highly unlikely."

"Could I help?"

That made Strata smile. "Trusting me more now?"

Raven was set back by that remark. "Let's just say your battiness is contagious."

Strata laughed again. "Raven, I'm glad I found you. I was worried that I might die alone."

"What is THAT supposed to mean?" She glared at him like he was a pink bookmark in her favorite horror book.

"It means what it means."

'"More riddles?"

"Oh, yes, with many more to come."

"What's going to happen?"

"My prisoner will go searching for a way to relieve his pain."

"Pain? Are you toturing him?"

"Hardly, I'm the only one keeing his sorrow in check. Without me, he's truly lost."

"And yet he wants to break free?"

Strata looked at Raven again. He inched in closer to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Raven?" he asked, "Have you ever considered how lucky you are to be alive?"

Raven was not sure what bothered her more: Strata's arm or that question. She decided to deal with the question first then pummel him for the arm later. She went with a diplomatic, though dangerous, "No."

"Well you should, I've been giving it a lot of though lately."

"You have?" her voice was filled with suspicion. Where was he going with his train of thoughts this time?

"There is an incident that you were fortunate to survive, an apocalypse of your own." He removed his arm from her. "What brought that on?" Raven wondered.

"If you mean the incident when my father tried to take over the galaxy, we are all fortunate to be alive."

"I didn't mean that."

"No?"

"No. I'm referring to the time you lived in an even more improbable scenario then that."

"Since when are you an expert on my survival rate?"

"Since you met my prisoner."

"WHAT? Are you saying I've met this 'third survivor' of yours?"

"Oh yes, and for some reason he was most intrigued by you."

"You did come here for me! That talk about hope…"

"Yes, I told you that was truth."

"So you're not an aimless wanderer like you said?"

"I was an aimless wanderer, an aimless jailer waiting to die. But then, I found the slimmer, illogical, unexplained hope that existed in the universe—YOU."

Raven had totally forgotten about the arm incident. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what it says: it takes a special person to meditate under the full moon at night."

"The sun's coming up now."

"Yes, we have been here some time and time grows short. You are hope under the moon."

"I don't see what you're talking about; I'm no one special, and we've never met."

"I think you know better than to claim that you're not special. If you weren't special you wouldn't have been out here waiting on me to come."

"WHAT? I wasn't waiting on you; you snuck up on me."

"Dear Raven, some things are just too important to be left to chance. You met my prisoner some time ago. You stopped the apocalypse—not your father, the apocalypse before him that you didn't even know existed."

"I still don't understand."

"Raven, you are the one who defied the odds. You should be dead; your entire team should be dead. I should be dead. This city should be rubble. The wrath of my prisoner is unrelenting, he uses his anger to cover his sorrow. You brought out the sorrow above the anger in him—no one's been able to do that. All who encounter my prisoner die. Until you, there was no exception. You are the one who, unexplainably and only for a brief moment, tamed that unruly monster."

"I…I..what?"

"Raven, I'm just going to say it. I'm tracking my prisoner's power—it's growing again and it's near its peak. When he climaxes in rage, he shall break his meager bonds and be unleashed on this world. It's only a matter of time. I can't stop him. Without purpose he will crush all that he encounters without question or discrimination."

"Who?"

"As I've said, you've met him before. My prisoner, my burden, is the **Raging Ragnarok**."

Raven was stunned. Ragnarok had long fallen out of the Titans' memories. He had been a strange, isolated blip—a powerful blip—but only a blip on their adventures. He lacked the motives of Slade, the ambition of Brother Blood, the treachery of Terra. And now, here was this stranger who had been in her life less than one day, who had hugged her, called her special, lied to her, and was now telling her that she should be dead.

"How do you know about that? No one was there with me but the team."

"Clearly, Raven, you're wrong on that account."

"You were there? Why didn't you try to help?"

"Couldn't do anything—that's the whole point of Ragnarok—he's beyond aid. I would have been no aid to you back then, I assure you. Even now, I'm not very useful. You have no idea the danger this city was in. . . The sun's almost up. I'm heading back down." Strata stood up from where he and Raven had been sitting. He began walking towards the ajar door.

"Wait!" yelled Raven, standing up for the first time in hours, "If you were there, then you knew Ragnarok would fall from the sky into the city ahead of time! How did you know that?"

Strata paused in his steps. He turned to face Raven. "Raven, you are my hope in this, though I don't think you realize that. That being said, I trust a smart girl from Azarath like you could figure that one out in time." He turned back around towards the door, opened it, and walked down the stairs.

Raven stood stairing at the doorway that Strata had just vanished through. There were so many questions in her, questions that she couldn't form words to or bring herself to ask. She was disgusted, mistrustful, and intrigued by Strata. How much of this mystery man was for real? Was he just toying with her? She could have sworn he was trying to flirt for a moment but then he had stopped. Did he really just need someone to see hope in? She was sure he was hidng much more than he was letting on. What was the true Strata through all his smoke and mirrors?

Raven glanced at the rising sun. Something he said was bothering her, not Ragnarok, but something else.

Then it occurred to her—Strata's final bombshell…

AZARATH…

He'd said where she was from. She had explicity said twice when he had asked where she was from "somewhere he'd never heard of." Yet, without any contact with any of the other team members except lunch when she was with him, he had somehow already known where she was from. So why had he asked? And how did he know?

As the sun rose behind her, Raven gazed into the empty doorway. Right now she was only sure of one thing: He definitely wasn't Terra.

TO BE CONTINUED….

_Whew! That's a 4,800 word update people! My typing fingers are bushed! So Ragnarok finally gets his first plug since Chapter1! What's up with Strata? How much of him is genuine? What is his real purpose on coming to Jump City? Is Raven really so central to his plans or is Strata positioning for something else? What's his real relation with Ragnarok, if it even exists? What will Raven tell the rest of the team, and what will they say? Is the Earth really in danger? That's what Chapter 6 is for, loyal readers! Please R&R, I'd say I've earned at least a flame or two for this update!_


	6. Breakfast the Tamaranian Way

_My deepest thanks to all of my reviewers for your suggestions and comments. You all make writing very worthwhile. There have perhaps not been as many of you as I initially hoped for at this point, but I'm not going to do one of those "I'm not updating until I get 30 reviews threats" that I see on this site. That's really not in the spirit of good storytelling I think. I'd like to think that I could keep going with no readers, solely because I enjoy writing and keep writing for the person who eventually might read it (don't get any ideas guys, I might keep writing but reviews keep me motivated to update quickly)._

_I am moving away from my norm here and having a slightly longer author introduction than usual. While I usually don't like these longer author introductions that I see on some stories that take up half the update (this one won't), reader comments have led me to think that story, being published serially, could use a short "recap" for new readers and slightly confused ones as Chapter 5 covered a lot of info. Readers should still read the preceding chapters as they're worth it, but a quick, bare bones summary might help:_

_Chapter 1: Taking place a year or two before the rest of the story, Robin remembers the unsolved attack of the Raging Ragnarok, a mysterious monster/warrior, on the docks. In their apparent moment of defeat, the Titans are saved when Raven somehow affects the beast._

_Chapter 2: A mysterious stranger who can make physical objects using energy tries to stop the HIVE 5 from looting a store._

_Chapter 3: The stranger reveals himself to be the Severing Strata and teams up with the Titans to drive the HIVE 5 away, saving Cyborg in the process._

_Chapter 4: The Strata eats lunch with the Titans and reveals small clues to his past. Raven is incredibly suspicious when Strata won't elaborate on his background._

_Chapter 5: Strata encounters Raven late at night and tells her some clues to his past, though she's not sure how honest he's being. _

_The main characters (summary):_

_The Raging Ragnarok: The mighty warrior unexplainably appeared above Jump City without warning one day and nearly smashed the city and the Titans to pieces. He flew away after an interlude with Raven and has not been seen again. Anything else said about Ragnarok has been an unverified claim from Strata. Strata claimed to Raven that he has to have a history with the beast, though this has not been confirmed. Strata claims that Ragnarok was a survivor of the war in his home country but was not directly allied with either side. Strata also claims that Ragnarok is his "prisoner" and will soon break free, unavoidably, from his prison._

_The Severing Strata: An older teenager with the ability to form simple tools and weapons from his hands using blue energy. The weapons he makes are solid until he stops touching them, and they subsequently disappear. He can fire these weapons as projectiles as long as he uses energy to tether them back to his hand. If he is forced to let go or the tether is cut, the weapon disappears. So far, Strata has made swords, drills, shields, ladders, pistons, and has launched hooks and boxing gloves attached to his hands with chains and cords. His largest object has been a wrecking ball which he slowly enlarged as he was swinging it. The energy itself is not indestructible—Jinx's powers were able to break it. _

_Strata's past is a mystery. He definitely seems to be more than he appears. He claims to be from a country that was destroyed in a war with an unnamed evil tyrant. Strata says that he is one of the three survivors from that war, the others being the tyrant and Ragnarok. He claims that he is "unlucky" being the survivor and that he is alive because he "failed his last mission." He also says he is guarding Ragnarok because he was the last one left who could. Strata has also claimed to be an "aimless wanderer" in Chapter 4 but his statements in Chapter 5 to Raven seem to contradict. Also, he may have lied about not knowing where Raven was from. He says his homeland is no more, but he helped slow down the tyrant from completely destroying its neighbors._

_Strata wears a box to his belt attached by a magnet. The narrator has said it contains three objects. The only one the story has shown is a photograph of Strata and a young girl, who he told Raven was his sister Alisha, who Strata says died in the late stages of the war._

_Alisha: A green-haired girl who Strata says is his sister who died in the war in his former home. Strata carries a picture of her._

_Raven: The taciturn Titan is the most suspicious of Strata. Strata claims she's his "last, one-in-a- million, probably-screwed-anyway hope." It's not sure how sincere he is about this._

_Robin: The Titans leader is mildly suspicious of Strata; Robin has the Ragnarok case file. He feels somewhat indebted to Strata due to Strata's aid that he provided._

_Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy: They seem to trust Strata._

_HIVE 5: Teenage criminals to whom Strata gave a really bad day. Will they be back? Jinx's powers can pierce Strata's weapons. Mammoth sleepwalks, but that's probably nothing._

_Evil tyrant: He's evil. He's tyrannical. Strata claims he exists. We don't know where he is, or if he "is." Really not sure why I even listed him. _

_But the read the early chapters, if you have not. This gives only the most essential info and not the tension, the mystery, and the drama. _

_So let's rejoin our story. I'll put all this intro in my profile sometime later. When we last left the story, Strata had left more bombshell revelations on Raven's lap then Beast Boy in a stankball tournament. As the night conference gave way to morning, we join the Titans in the early morning_…

"The Bird, the Boy, and the Mighty Beast"

Chapter 6: Breakfast the Tamaranian Way

As the sun arose signaling the end of Raven and Strata's marathon war of mystery, the light shone in off the bay and into the windows of the Titan's rooms. The seagulls stirred from the moving barges. Deep in his room, Beast Boy snored loudly, shaking his bed. Cyborg was finishing his re-charge cycle. Robin was dreaming of kicking Slade's butt.

But it was a great morning to be a Tamaranian princess.

There are ten different Tamaranian words for sunlight. The light that fades as the sun sets in the west is called "_hisperee_." The light above one's head at midday is "_squealleet_." But as Starfire woke up from a dream involving curtains, pink foxes, and dances with Robin under the moonlight, the early morning light that awoke the birds, made the flowers bloom, and started a new day of possibilities was "_freefroo_," the Tamaranian word that spoke of light as cheery as the word's own syllables.

Starfire was the first in the Titans' main room. She descended down the stairs with a smile on her face that would have made Raven cringe and eyes so bright that the _freefroo_ almost had competition. Floating effortlessly to the kitchen she had only one goal: to make breakfast for her beloved friends. Starfire was 100 sure that this lovely morning with lovely light and glorious morning dew would only naturally produce glorious food. She was, sadly, out of her favorite Zorka berries that she liked to mix in with her creations. She could have sworn that she had had another vat in the fridge.

(In reality, Cyborg and Beast Boy, fearful of whatever damage their bodies might sustain from further ingestion of Zorka berries had poured that vat into the bay where it was promptly eaten by a group of fishes. The berries caused the fish to gain incredible intelligence and powers of speech. The fish's intelligence was so advanced that they instantly discovered the cure for cancer, the common cold, and in-grown toenails, which was particularly miraculous because fish have no nails whatsoever. However, they then quickly developed taste buds seconds later. Upon tasting the Zorka berries the fish were so horrified that such a substance should exist AND be in their mouths that they committed mass suicide by leaping onto the rocks and drying out in the _freefroo_. And so, the cures for cancer, the common cold, and in-grown toenails were discovered and lost in the span of 2 minutes.)

Starfire decided to make waffles this morning. She had witnessed Cyborg perform this task so many times that she was sure she could do it without turning Raven orange like she had when she tried to make French toast. So, Starfire worked on the waffles gathering all the required ingredients: waffle mix, eggs, milk, oil, waffle iron, and (unfortunately confusing the procedure with her recipe for Gordanian Hash) ketchup, string beans, soy sauce, and cooking sherry. All these she somehow turned into a waffle-looking substance. She taste tested one and proclaimed it a perfect Earth waffle with just the right amount of Tamaranian flavor. She remembered that Beast Boy wouldn't east the waffle with milk and eggs in it so she made a batch using soda and yams instead.

As they were cooking, Robin entered the main room, "Hey Star," he said, "You're up early." Starfire usually spent most of the early morning waxing Silkie.

"Oh, yes, Robin, I have good news!" she proclaimed with the most joyous smile that has ever been smiled in the entire galaxy.

Robin fell for that bait quickly, "What's that?"

"I have made everyone waffles! Here! Try some with the juice of oranges!" Starfire shoved a plate of browner-than-usual waffles in front of Robin.

Robin looked like he had just been ordered to serve life in prison. "Maybe we should wait for the others…" he said sheepishly, which was totally unnoticed by the jubilant Tamaranian.

"Yes! We must get the others!" exclaimed Starfire, excited that the others would join in on her "creation." She boomed her Tamaranian voice across the Tower, "Friends! Come join Friend Robin and me in a harmonious breakfast!"

Cyborg was the first to appear. "Yo, guys, Raven never woke me up for guard duty last night! What's going on?"

Starfire exclaimed, "Cyborg! I have made us breakfast! Come join Robin and me!"

Cyborg was really hoping the crime alarm would go off that instant. He was disappointed, "Sure, Star, wouldn't miss it for the world," he replied hoping that his digestive engine wouldn't implode again.

Strata, having completed his nightly sojourn with Raven, entered the main room upon hearing Starfire, totally ignorant of the horror that was awaiting him. "Good morning, everyone," said the newcomer.

"Hey, Strata," said Cyborg, "sleep well?"

"Rough night for me," said Strata, "had a bad dream, went for a walk, Raven kept me company."

"She did?" said Robin, surprised at the idea of Raven's suspicions going so far as to keep Strata socially occupied for a whole night.

"Yeah, she seems nice enough, a little cheery—in a very dark and brooding sort of way."

"That's our Raven," said Cyborg, totally not understanding Strata's paradoxical description of her.

"Strata! You must try one of my waffles once everyone gets here!" said Starfire, totally confident that culinary history was about to be made. "My waffles have what the man on TV calls them—BAM!" She said this was such vigor and pounding her fist on the table that it broke in two. "These Earth tables are very peculiar," she said, "they break so easily."

"Waffles? Wow, thanks. You guys are really treating me!" said Strata, as chipper as Starfire.

"Don't worry, Robin," whispered Cyborg, "I have more tables downstairs."

"I'm more worried about 'BAM,'" returned Robin.

It was at this point that Raven phased into the room by descending from the ceiling. She took one look at the boys, Starfire, the waffles, and then Starfire's big grin and realized that disaster was upon her person.

"Good morning, Friend Raven," said Starfire with all the excitability of a squirrel, which really grinded on Raven's nerves in the morning, "It is waffle day!"

"Joyous," stated Raven with all the emotion of a rock.

"Did you sleep well?" asked Starfire, totally not remembering Strata's comment 90 seconds earlier.

"Oh no, Raven did not sleep at all, did she?" said Cyborg, teasing Raven for not following up on her guard duty. "Did you and Strata have a nice night alone together? Was it a special night for you two?"

Raven shot Cyborg a glance that silently delivered one simple message: DIE! "No, he rambled about the moon for two hours."

"It was a very hopeful moon," smiled Strata. Raven grimaced.

"And a glorious morning!" proclaimed Starfire.

"My thoughts exactly," said the newcomer.

There was a bumping noise as Beast Boy came down the stairs, struggling to put his last shoe on. "I'm hungry, what's for breakfast?"

"Waffles!" proclaimed Starfire, "I have made breakfast for my dear teammates and new friend Severing Strata! Beast Boy, I made you waffles without eggs or dairy," Starfire pointed to a stack of waffles that seemed to be…fizzing. "I know my friends will love them. Now that we are all here, let us eat!"

The non-cooks sat on the stools at the kitchen counter as the table was demolished (Raven and Beast Boy needing no explanation as to why.) Starfire did not notice as each person drenched their waffles in syrup. "Is mine FIZZING?" thought Beast Boy.

"Let us eat!" shouted Starfire as if she was about to open a birthday present.

Each Titan and Strata took a bite of a waffle. At first there was no reaction but moments later…

Raven felt her entire body begin to cry out as all of her inner selves from Happy to Hatred screamed, "NO!" in unison as her psyche was shattered from the waffle assault. "Excuse me," she stammered and vanished in a flash of dark energy.

Beast Boy suddenly fell backwards, "Oh no! I think I just lost an entire animal family in my DNA!" He began involuntarily morphing, cycling through the aardvark family.

Cyborg paused for a moment, "Ah, calm it Beast Boy, this isn't so bad…" His words were cut short as his head shot up three feet from his body attached to a spring—a safety measure to separate his throat from his stomach. "Oh great," he said as his left arm fell off, rejecting the contaminated body it once called home.

Robin was banging his head on the counter in pain. Starfire saw this as the Tamaranian head banging of joy. "Well, Robin, do you think I am a pretty good cook?" She failed to notice Strata doubled over on the floor next to Beast Boy screaming, "The pain! The pain! Oh, the torture!"

Robin could not put his feelings into words, "You're…pretty…something."

Starfire of course took this completely different from its intent, "You think I'm PRETTY? Oh Robin!" Absolutely elated, she embraced Robin with a Tamaranian hug that would have crippled a polar bear. "I ALWAYS like to be pretty for you, Robin! I was never sure how you felt but, oh, Robin!"

Robin was not sure how to deal with what was happening. The world was spinning so quickly and he was getting low on oxygen. Also, he was now fairly sure that a rib had broken. He noticed the open fridge and was surprised to see that several items were missing that he was sure were there last night like soy sauce, cooking sherry, etc. "Say, Starfire, I notice we're getting low on food. Why don't you go to the store and get us restocked while we sit here and enjoy your waffles?"

Starfire would have moved a mountain had Robin asked her at that moment. "Oh yes, Robin, but who will go with me? Last time, Cyborg was upset that I only brought mustard home. Will you go with me?"

Robin needed a quick excuse to avoid a perilous shopping trip with Starfire, and he realized he was going to need a lot of time in the restroom very quickly, "Gee, Star, I'd love to but I need to work on the R-Cycle, can any of you guys go?" He gazed around the room. Cyborg's head was still half-way up the wall, and Beast Boy's morphing had progressed to the sloth family.

Strata shot up in pain, totally unaware of what was happening, "Aaaaaah! The horror! The horror!"

"Oh, Strata says he will go with me! This will be fun! I get to shop with someone new today!" exclaimed Starfire.

"What? What's going on?" said Strata, totally unaware of this new threat.

"Let's go!" yelled Starfire, grabbing Strata by the hand and flying, holding him while doing so, out an open window. "We will have such fun!"

"Aaaah!" yelled Strata, suddenly finding himself 60+ feet in the air.

"Yes! Let's yell!" shouted Starfire, "Wheeeee!"

"Aaaah!" screamed Strata, as Starfire did a cartwheel in mid-air. She loosened her grip and he almost plummeted to the ground but caught her ankle. Starfire raced towards the city with Strata holding onto her ankle, wishing that he'd never heard of waffles.

"Well, that's over," said Cyborg, as they flew out of sight. "Will someone get me my arm?"

Cyborg's traitorous left arm radiated dark energy and floated into his right palm as Raven floated up from the floor and back into the main room. "Thanks, Rae," said Cyborg.

"Don't mention it," said Raven with a very vacant look on her face. "As soon as Beast Boy stops changing into squirrels we need to talk about Strata."

* * *

Strata had forgotten how long it had been since had touched the ground. He thought he might have lost his sense of time in the last barrel roll that Starfire did on their way to the supermarket. Still tightly clinching her ankle, he wondered whether or not he was going to have to use his powers to form a parachute in the next few minutes.

Starfire was so happy that Strata had volunteered to come to the market with her. She hoped he was recognizing the "joy of flight" with her. It was so good to make new friends though. This one did seem to scream a lot though, especially when they had flown by that helicopter. She wanted to impress Strata by showing him how close she could fly by the helicopter blades. It was a pity that Robin had stopped flying with her citing "perilous conditions," whatever that meant. She rode on the back of the R-cycle with him all the time; why would he never let her fly him around the city? "Friend Strata are you experiencing the joy of flight?"

"I'm definitely experiencing something," shrieked Strata as a flock of geese flew past him. "Say, how far is this market?"

"Oh we passed it several times," smiled Starfire, "I have been flying in circles so we could have more fun."

Strata was not quite sure how to take that new piece of information. "Shouldn't we get going?"

"Okay, Strata, we shall go do 'the shopping,'" answered his pilot with a giggle that would have made stoics jump off of bridges.

Starfire landed outside the market. Strata felt his chest to make sure that his heart was still there, "That was quite a ride," he said.

"Yes, we shall go extra fast on the way back," said Starfire, "let's get going."

They entered the Jump City market, known simply as "JumpMart." The store was busy with shoppers getting various foodstuffs for their families. Starfire got a shopping cart and began scanning the produce with Strata following alongside, simply glad to have discovered that gravity still existed.

Starfire picked up an apple, "Oh, look," she said, "it is the little red fruit with the good middle. What are they called—marshmallows?"

Strata barely restrained himself from rolling on the floor in laughter, "No, those are apples," he said, deciding to not mention that the cores were the inedible part.

"Oh, we must get some," said Starfire. "Robin says that he likes these. I put the middles in his food all the time." She moved on and picked up a banana, "I love the skin of these," she said, "And Beast Boy likes the middles, especially when he's a monkey.—which reminds me, he's taken to eaten dog food lately…."

"Yeah bananas are pretty basic," he laughed to himself, "so what about mustard?"

"The drinks are a few aisles down," said Starfire with utter sincerity. "We will get there after getting the peanut butter—it's good between toes."

Strata was still taking in that new piece of data about Starfire in (all of it was really starting to hurt his head, though that still could be remnants from waffle poisoning) when the JumpMart intercom, which had been announcing a 3 for 2 sale on squash-flavored pretzels, spoken by a lady who was clearly very bored and overworked, was interrupted in a flurry of static by a man with a very strange drawl who screamed every sentence:

"_Attention JumpMart shoppers! You're regularly scheduled announcements of squash sales and elevator music have been interrupted for some rockin' good robbin' by none other than yours truly, Punk Rocket! Now if the lowly teens at the checkout counter would please open the register's and send all the money inside this way, we can cut this show off early! Any trouble and you guys get a benefit concert from yours truly, got that?"_

To be continued… 

_I originally wrote the chapter to keep going here, but it got too long so I cut it in half and made the rest chapter 7. Punk Rocket (from the Teen Titans' lost episode at Postopia's website) is robbing the market and only Strata and Starfire can stop him! What will occur in the battle? And what of the other Titans who are discussing Strata's revelations to Raven? Keep reading people! This is only part of this special 2-chapter update! Please R&R people this is a 3,700 word update with a 1,500 word intro! That's worth at least a flame! And consider putting an alert on this story if you like it, I promise to make it worth your reading._


	7. Sound, Fury, and Lobsters

_Hello, loyal readers. Welcome back to Chapter 7 of the story which was originally combined with an enormous Chapter 6, but I separated them into more manageably large chapters for readability ease. Now we continue on with the story as Strata and Starfire confront Punk Rocket, who has come to rob JumpMart._

"The Bird, the Boy, and the Mighty Beast"

Chapter 7: Sound, Fury, and Lobsters

"What in the world?" said Strata, looking at Starfire.

"It is the Punk Rocket!" said Starfire, "He is here to rob the store of food!"

"Not a good guy, eh?" queried Strata, "There sure are a lot of loonies in this town."

"We must save the store!" exclaimed Starfire, "Hurry before he plays his guitar!" She glided towards the front of the store.

"Play his what?" thought Strata, hurrying after her.

As the two approached the front of the store, they looked around. The store's cashiers and several patrons were all looking very confused and staring up towards the public address system's speakers on the store's high ceiling. There was no sign of Punk Rocket, not that Strata knew what to look for. It was at that moment there was a crash and parts of the ceiling caved in and Punk Rocket came leaping down from the ceiling. He was holding a large electric guitar which seemed to be attached to several large amplifiers that he had mounted on a frame attached to his back. They were pointing in all possible directions.

"Yo, blokes!" screamed the newly emerged villain while wiping drywall dust off his rather smelly shirt, "I'm not seeing any dough coming my way! Now get with the handovers or you get a free benefit concert from Punk Rocket! And when I say benefits, I mean for me! Now fork over the green, and I don't mean any lame 2 for 1 coupons!"

"Punk Rocket, you give up now and leave these people alone!" yelled Starfire towards the villain, who was perched upon a checkout counter.

Punk Rocket roared in laughter, "Blimey! If it isn't the cute redhead Titan and a new guy I don't know! That was a quick turnaround time! Where's the rest of your posse? They running scared or are you just hear for the sound check?"

"Hey, 80's hair band reject, I don't know what the heck you're doing here, why you're dressed like that, or what's up with that equipment—seriously haven't you ever heard of an iPod—but get off that counter and quit ruining my day! I've had enough freaks for one week already!" shouted Strata, who was still trying to process what was happening.

Punk Rocket laughed off Strata's comments, "iPod? Ha Ha! That's a good one! Good riffs are all about volume! Why don't you come over here and get an earful?"

"Ooooo…..you're asking for it, you exaggerated roadie; why don't you autograph my hammer?" Strata leaped towards Punk Rocket as his right hand glowed blue. In less than a second, a blue beam of energy emitted from his hand and extended outward from his hand. The energy solidified into a large sledgehammer, which Strata raised to swing down upon Punk Rocket."

"Here's my latest single for my newest fan!" yelled rocker as he struck a chord on his guitar. A huge sound wave emitted from the fore-mounted amps on Punk Rocket's back. The wave carried both a force of incredibly high volume and was so powerful that it knocked Strata mid-swing backwards with powerful acceleration into Starfire so that they both went rolling back into the seafood section. The wave expanded outwards knocking over displays, customers, and a tank of live lobsters (which landed on Strata). "Everyone's a music-hater!" roared the guitarist.

Starfire, having been farthest away from the blast, recovered first, "It is time to stop your music!" Her eyes glowed green and she flew directly at Punk Rocket intending to ram him with all her might.

"I always save a song for my female fans," cooed Punk Rocket as he struck a chord, strumming his fingers across the strings. His amps fired another powerful wave towards Starfire. The Tamaranian girl, used to large sounds from Tamaran concerts where musicians coordinated the howls of Gordanian monkeys, stayed in flight as long as she could, pushing against the fierce waved of sound that Rocket was delivering to her at full force. However, with one final jam on his guitar, Starfire was flung backward into a display of rice cakes.

Starfire's delay had given Strata time to recover. "It's a wonder this guy isn't deaf," he thought, "though that might explain why he plays like that. It's too dangerous too try to take him head on; I need something long-range," he thought while pulling a lobster off his shirt sleeve. His hands glowed blue again (he had let go of the hammer when Punk Rocket had hit him the first time and as when Strata lets go of all is objects, it subsequently vanished). He raised his glowing palms towards Punk Rocket and metal arrow-points, two from each palm, sprung from his palm towards the villain while being tethered to Strata's hands by four chains.

"Gifts from the public? No thanks, I only take Grammy's and cash!" yelled Punk Rocket as he leaped down from the register, dodging Strata's metal points easily from across the room.

"You'll have to dodge better than that," yelled Strata, "I can control my projections." He pulled on the chains extending from his hands and the four metal points which had flown behind Punk Rocket turned in their flight path a full 180 degrees and flew towards Punk Rocket's back.

The rocker smirked, "You'll have to attack better than that." He strummed a new chord on his guitar and this time the aft amps sprang to life. They emitted a sound wave that traveled behind Punk Rocket and made Strata's darts bobble in flight. A second wave dashed the chains that tethered the points, sundering them in two and Strata's entire weapon disappeared instantly as the link with his hands was severed.

"Oh great," said Strata as his hands glowed blue again. He put up a blue wall in front of him which pressed against with his hands as Punk Rocket unleashed a new attack wave against him. Strata strained to hold up his barrier against the force; he could hear it beginning to break.

"Friend Strata, we must do something!" called a recovered Starfire who flew behind Strata's barrier with him.

"Got any ideas? I'm almost out of shield here." Strata watched what he was sure was a frozen food case go flying past him on his left. There were cans and debris everywhere.

"Can you make a small hole in your wall right here?" asked Starfire.

"Yeah, but it won't hold for very long."

"It will have to do, please do so now."

Strata focused his energy and a small one-foot diameter hole appeared in the upper right corner of his wall. Instantly, a jar of peanut butter flew through it. Starfire dodged the flying confection and peered through the opening. Her eyes glowed green as she emitted her powerful eye-beams from them. The energy sailed at high speed towards Punk Rocket.

"Not a bad try, Titans, but not good enough!" sang out the rocker. He turned the volume knob on his main amps up and launched another barrage of sound waves. The waved were so powerful they split the air like lightning creating thunder. The boom refracted the eyebeams on contact and they exploded in a flash of light in mid-air with Punk Rocket a safe distance away.

"Now for my climactic ballad ," called out the villain, as he strung a new chord on his guitar. "This place has surround sound." Above Starfire and Strata was one of the speakers for the store's intercom. It sprang to life and a mighty sound wave struck down from above on top of the two heroes who were still guarding behind Strata's cracking wall which was facing Punk Rocket. The attack hit them unawares from above and flattened them into the ground, with Starfire landing on top of Strata. Strata's wall disappeared as his face met the ground in an unfriendly manner, being tackled by the wave from above. His hands slipped from the wall, and his shield vanished.

"He has tapped into the store's PA system," mumbled Strata, his face full of floor. "He's been setting up for this for some time."

"He has been expecting us," said Starfire. They were both launched into the back wall as another wave from Punk Rocket's amps crashed into them. "Any ideas?" asked the Tamaranian, "perhaps we should try attacking him from the rear."

"Already tried that," said Strata whose body was already sore from the pounding the HIVE 5 had given him yesterday. "He has speakers back there too. Perhaps you could attack the rear and I could attack the front. He might not be able to play right to hit all his amps at the same time."

"Let's do it," said Starfire, "before he attacks again."

Rocket was gathering cash from the registers. "This is a nice load," he said, "I might finally be able to get that new 40-foot speaker I haven't been able to steal." He stepped over the now unconscious store cashiers and faced his adversaries again who were stumbling to their feet.

"Go!" yelled Starfire as the two combatants charged their adversary.

"You blokes never listen!" yelled Rocket as he launched another sound wave at them.

Strata instantly dropped to his knees and Starfire ducked behind him. He extended his arms out in front of himself, blue energy emerged in front of him as another wall appeared. The wave crashed into his barrier and Punk Rocket poured all his decibels into cracking Strata's wall.

"This again?" said Rocket, "You guys need another set!'

"He's going for the PA system again," said Strata, "Do it!"

Starfire raced out from behind Strata's cracking barrier and flew in a wide arc around Rocket's right side. The villain had been reaching to launch another attack from above but hesitated when Starfire moved against him from behind. He turned toward her. "Take this!" screamed the rocker as sound waves crashed into Starfire from the speakers in the ceiling.

Strata released his wall and reformed his hammer. He charged at Rocket his some of his last strength. As he approached Rocket the villain suddenly noticed his peril and unleashed a chord. The aft speakers flared again and Strata was knocked backwards by a direct hit, releasing his hammer in the process. "Ugh!" he muttered as he landed in a pile nachos. "Our timing was off."

"You blokes just don't appreciate good rock," laughed Punk Rocket. "Now you can barely move. Time for me to be headin' off to my next gig!"

Strata struggled to his feet as the villain gathered the money to leave. "Starfire, you awake?"

"_Gooblegeez_," muttered Starfire which is a close Tamaranian expression for, "Mommy is it time for my nap?" She struggled to her feet and regained her senses, "The Punk Rocket is very loud today; where are the others, they should be here by now? We need a sound-proof room to fight this guy with."

"Sound-proof booth?" said Strata, "I can't make that but…say, Starfire, have you ever been bowling?"

"Yes, Friend Severing Strata, but we don't go anymore after I bowled a starbolt. Robin said it was not good, but he did tell me to strike the pins."

"Well, I need your strength to strike Punk Rocket right now. Just throw the large, thick, insulated bowling ball at him."

"What ball is that? I see no such thing."

Strata smiled a very tired smile. He extended his arms to his sides so that he was at his full wingspan. His palm glowed blue as energy poured out from his hands and curved around his body until it met up and connected with energy from the other palm from above and below and around his entire body until Strata was encased in a think, blue sphere.

"Oh, Friend Strata, I see now," said Starfire. She flew towards the ball and using what strength she had left to summon heaved it into the air. "Mean Punk Rocket, this game is over!" She launched the ball with a mighty heave towards the villain.

Punk Rocket, who was emptying the last cash register and surprised to see his adversaries still moving, turned towards her. "I must admit you guys have some stamina, but my encore is just like my opening!" He struck a chord and a wave launched against the sphere with Strata inside.

However, the wave did not knock the sphere back like Strata's points or refract like Starfire's energy. It was heavy and think like Strata's wall. Encased in the sphere, Strata could not hear or feel Rocket's wave. The sphere hesitated in mid-air before overcoming the wave and crashing into Punk Rocket. "Oomph!" yelled the villain as the over 6-foot diameter ball hurdled him to the floor.

"Why you little scamps!" yelled Rocket, who reached for his guitar.

"I don't think so!" yelled Strata as the sphere disappeared. His hand quickly flickered blue as he formed a sword and sliced the guitar in two. He gave Rocket a good kick.

"This is over!" yelled Starfire as she fired eyebeams at Rocket. Her energy hit him square in the back in his frame of amps and speakers. His equipment exploded and he landed on the ground unconscious and defeated. "And for the record I like the music of the elevators!"

"You do?" asked Strata.

"Yes, I play it whenever Raven is grumpy around me."

"And that helps?"

"She leaves."

"Oh, okay, well I guess we can get our groceries from the floor somewhere."

"Do not worry Strata. The mustard display is still intact."

"I rejoice to the heavens," deadpanned Strata.

It was at this moment that the rest of the Titans arrived in the T-Car. "Friends what kept you?" asked Starfire, "Strata and I defeated the nasty Punk Rocket together."

"I can see you two have been busy," said Cyborg, "guessing from the destruction I'd say you had fun, Star."

"It was tough, but Strata's idea with the bowling ball did it."

"Hey, you gave me the idea."

"We had to have a long talk, Star," said Robin.

"About me, Robin?" asked the princess.

"About some stuff Strata told Raven last night," said Beast Boy, "about he being here for a reason."

"And about the Raging Ragnarok," said Robin, "He says that he's coming back."

"Is this true, Friend Strata?"

"Yes, Starfire, I'm afraid it is." Strata glanced down at the defeated Punk Rocket. "What is true is that there is a darkness on the horizon that shall make this loud rocker look more like a kazoo in comparison."

"Troubles are ahead," said Raven, "and you're the cause of them."

"That might be stretching it a bit," said Strata, "But one thing I know for certain is that this city will be the beginning of something very powerful. And I know the future is more uncertain than ever."

_To be Continued…_

_Wow! Strata helps the Titans stop another villain from looting wild, but mysteries still remain. What will happen to Strata and the Titans now that his secrets are beginning to unravel? And where is Ragnarok? And what is this "something" that's coming? And what's inside the rest of Strata's metal box? That's what Chapter 8 is for people! The greatest revelations are yet to come! Please R I put a lot of work into these, and I would really appreciate it! Perhaps even consider an alert to keep up with this story!_

_Chapter 7: 2,628 words_


	8. The Boy and The Bird

_Greeting all, I hope you are enjoying the last chapters as much as I enjoyed writing them. As you may remember, we last left off with lingering tension about what Strata claims is the coming of Ragnarok following the defeat of Punk Rocket at the hands (or more accurately, giant blue bowling ball) of Starfire and Strata. Raven has now informed the other Titans of Strata's strange revelations to her in Chapter 5. First time readers should review the recap introduction leading off Chapter 6 after reading the other chapters. So now without further delay, we rejoin our heroes following the victory at JumpMart…_

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* * *

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"The Bird, the Boy, and the Mighty Beast"

Chapter 8: The Boy and The Bird

"You have grown suddenly quiet," commented Raven towards Strata, "You've been a chatterbox all day and now you've clammed up."

"Still suspicious of me, eh, Raven?" said the newcomer, turning his gaze from scenery outside the T-Car window. The Titans with Strata in tow were returning to the Tower following Starfire and Strata's victory over Punk Rocket, "I'm just hoping that store was insured."

"You have been at the center of a sizeable amount of commercial destruction lately. And, let's just say I'm being observant—though you are suspicious."

"Yes, well, you've been at the center of a lot of observing and suspecting lately. And may I remind you that the HIVE 5 were destroying the hardware store yesterday before I arrived. Besides, maybe I'd be more talkative if you had not kept me up all last night talking about the moon and hope and all that stuff," he added this last sentence with a wry smile.

"Excuse me, I kept YOU up last night? I remember you sneaking up on me in the pitch blackness, interrupting my meditation, and promptly keeping me awake until sunrise."

"That's your fault for being so filled with hope."

"Ah, yes, that riddle again. Don't you have any new mysteries now that the sun is out? Or would you like to explain how I'm supposedly the answer to your problem?"

"Nah, not going to, I can't really explain that one."

" 'Can't' or 'won't'?" Raven added that with a sideways glare in Strata's direction.

Strata chuckled, "Both really. I can't explain it, but I probably wouldn't if I could."

"You find fate funny?"

"No, I find you funny."

Raven rolled her forehead and turned her gaze fully onto Strata as she stared him down, "I'm not a funny person."

"Sure you are, you're just funny in a very serious way."

"You're suspicious in a very suspicious way."

Strata smiled again, "Raven, you have yet to realize the wonder inside of you that I so clearly see."

"You're watching me?"

Strata laughed a little louder and he lowered his voice to more of a monotone drone in imitation of Raven, "Let's just say I'm being observant." Beast Boy, sitting on the opposite side of Raven, broke into laughter.

"You really think I'm funny?" Raven turned a glare towards Beast Boy that would have made a blind man shiver.

"Deep down you are flat out hysterical, oh Dark One."

"I'm still watching you."

"Of course, I'm a very interesting person."

Raven pulled her hood back over her head as she sat and thought for a second. She was in the back seat of the T-Car, sitting between Beast Boy and Strata, who was behind Cyborg, who was driving. Starfire was perched between Robin and Cyborg in the front seat, still recounting her morning's adventure to the two boys.

"…and after Strata made a sword and cut the Punk Rocket's musical instrument in two, I blasted his machines with my eye-beams and they went BOOM! And then we won and you came."

Robin smiled to see Starfire so happy, "Sounds like it was a rough fight."

"It was, dear Robin, I landed in some rice cakes, though they did not have icing on them like any cakes at all. Strata landed in the lobsters. Strata," she turned towards the newcomer, "What do you think happened to all the lobsters?"

"I'm kind of envious of the lobsters; they don't have ears. They'll be fine. I put one in Punk Rocket's pants as the police took him away."

"Sweet!" said Cyborg and Beast Boy in unison.

After a few more minutes the Titans arrived back at the Tower, and the group exited the T-Car. "Home dear home!" exclaimed Starfire, "Did you all eat all the waffles Robin?"

"Uh…" stuttered Robin, remembering that Cyborg had burned them all with his built-in torch.

"They were taken care of in the most fitting manner possible," said Raven

"Is that a plane of some sort?" said Strata who had become distracted by the vehicle next to the T-Car.

"That, Strata, is the T-Ship," said Cyborg walking over by Strata and always glad to have a new person to show off his greatest creation to.

Strata gazed upon its orange exterior further, "So, it flies? Or is it just a model?"

"A MODEL!" yelled Cyborg, clearly offended, "Now see here! This is the T-Ship! It had quad ion engines, dual laser arrays, and the five pilot pods can separate into separate vessels! The armor is double-thick, and each pilot seat has a cup holder! No it is not a model!"

"Okay, okay, sorry," said Strata, "I was just wondering what it was."

"Well now you know," said Cyborg, "And just in case you want to know, it doubles as a submarine."

"A SUBMARINE?" said Strata, suddenly startled, "This thing goes underwater?"

"You bet," said Cyborg, beaming with pride over his baby. "The pressurization system is perfect; I'm still getting the torpedoes built."

"Very nice," said Strata, "I'm sure it swims great."

"Booyah! It's my swimming/flying baby!"

Raven glanced at Strata for a moment. "This is odd," she pondered, "This is the first real interest that he's seemed to show in anything. Is it the T-Ship? Perhaps he's a mechanic-loving-type like Cyborg. At least he is not rambling about the moon anymore." She paused in thought for a moment as Beast Boy belched unusually loud and laughed at his own grossness. She heard Cyborg yell something about giving it a score of nine. She returned he gaze towards their enigmatic newcomer, who was still gazing at the T-Ship. "What is it that drives him?" she wondered, "What is he hiding? And why, oh why, does he seem to keep wanting to bring me of all of us into his secret world?"

Strata turned from the T-Ship towards the team. Cyborg and Beast Boy were still laughing over Beast Boy's burp. Starfire was talking with Robin. Lastly, his eyes roamed and met Raven's gaze. With one hand still on the T-Ship, Raven felt his eyes bore into her, and she again wondered what he saw when he looked at her. In the brief moment their gazes met, she imagined that some kind of understanding was passing between them, that somehow she would find a clue to the mysteries that the Severing Strata had laid before her feet. Was he a wandering warden or just another boy who fancied moonlight with some strange stories?

Strata raised an eyebrow and looked at Raven. She noticed that his mouth began open and he seemed to be about to say something. Suddenly he stopped, and his eyes seemed to open fully. His face turned pale, and he staggered where he stood.

As his hand slipped from the T-Ship, Strata collapsed without so much as a word onto the floor of the Titans' garage.

* * *

"Can you sense what's wrong with him, Raven?" asked Robin. 

"Yes, what is wrong with Friend Strata?" queried Starfire.

"He looks kinda bleached," said Beast Boy, which surprised most of the team as Beast Boy cleaned almost nothing and would surely be ignorant of what bleach was.

Raven gazed at her teammates. They were in the main room and Strata was laid on the large couch after having been carried there by Cyborg. "I can't really sense anything; It's very strange. Usually, I can almost always sense something on a person but not him. It's like I can't even find a solid piece of psyche to begin looking around. He is a total blank."

There were moments of silence. At last Cyborg spoke, "I'll ask since no one else is. Is he dead?"

"No," said Robin, "He has a pulse, and he seems to be breathing."

"That's what so strange," said Raven, "Usually I can sense organs or tissue or at least know what works so I know what to heal. This time there's nothing. I try to use my powers on sensing Strata, and all I get is a blank; I might as well be trying to read the mind of the couch."

"Or Beast Boy," said Cyborg. No one laughed.

"What should we do?" asked Starfire, "Tamaranian acupuncture?"

"I think we better just wait and see if he comes out of it before we try breaking bones, Starfire," says Robin.

As if on cue, Strata's eyes opened, albeit with a very vacant expression, the kind of an expression one's eyes would have had one been hit hammer, picked up off the ground, and carried to a hospital, only to be hit by an ambulance upon one's arrival. Strata's looked left at the couch cushion, glanced right at Beast Boy, then quickly glanced at the couch cushion again, as if finding it more interesting. His moving eyes, a sharp contrast to his rather pale, immobile body. He then sat up sharply and glanced right and left through with no expression to determine whether or not he was gaining anymore sense of presence then from the couch cushion. Without looking, he mechanically and suddenly reached out his left hand and grabbed Raven's hand and pulled her towards him so that her nose was only 2 centimeters from his own.

Raven gazed in his eyes but found almost no life in them, as if he was just staring forward without blinking, totally ignorant of her proximity. Strata then opened his mouth and voiced barely above a whisper, "He's close." He then stood up, and Raven backed away.

The team somewhat surprised at Strata's zombie-like recovery was stunned for a second. Strata in the meanwhile was beginning to get his color back and was checking his appendages as if not sure they would all be there.

"Who's close?" asked Robin.

Strata turned around and faced the team. He looked right, then left, then directly at Robin, "The Raging Ragnarok."

"What was all that fainting about? Are you okay?"

"I felt him. And, yes, I think I'm fine."

"Are you so familiar with him that you can feel him coming?"

Strata looked at Robin as if not sure how to take that question. After a moment's pause he simply answered, "Yes."

Starfire queried Strata next, "Does that happen often, you feeling the Ragnarok?"

Strata rolled his neck and stretched his arms as if he had been sitting for a very longer time then his three minutes on the couch, "No, I occasionally get a reading on his presence, but I don't ever remember hitting the ground like that before. So, I think he's close."

Beast Boy questioned next, "He's coming?"

"Yes, he's coming. We're very familiar with each other, though if I may say so he's seemed surprisingly overwhelming there a moment ago." Strata now seemed totally recovered.

Cyborg looked at him next, "You spoke with him, saw him?"

"No, I felt him surging here. Believe me; with Ragnarok, that's enough."

Robin just gave Strata a hard stare, "I thought you said he was in prison!"

Strata gave Robin a similar stare, "He is in prison!"

Robin gritted his teeth, finally becoming frustrated with Strata's riddles, "How can he be coming here if he's in prison?"

Strata turned from Robin and looked out a window, "Nice weather we're having today, huh? I hear there's supposed to be rain tomorrow night."

"Answer the question! How can he be coming here and be in prison!"

Strata suddenly looked somber, "He's that powerful, Robin.

"I thought you were supposed to be this guy's jailer!"

Strata smiled, "I am his jailer."

"You're not a very good one, not watching you're prisoner that well."

"On that point, I cannot disagree."

"How can you be his jailer, he be in jail, yet you know that he's coming? Did you let him out?"

Strata's look turned serious. "Ragnarok is a mighty beast, the soulless monstrosity that exists only to fill its own wrath, its own…rage. He…It has amazing power at its command. Yet, it cannot tell right from wrong, it has no reasons, no motives, no compassion. It is ever-destructive and all-dangerous. It seeks to fill a hole in itself that it has no capacity to fill. No, Robin, I would never seek to unleash him on the world." Strata looked crestfallen at this and sat back on the couch.

There were several moments of silence. Cyborg again broke it, "What can we do? How can we stop him from coming?"

Strata kept his gaze on the ground before him, "Nothing. We can do nothing."

Raven questioned him next, "You said there was hope when we were on the roof last night. Is there any?"

Strata looked up at Raven, and she felt his gaze meet hers again—and secretly wondered if this had been part of what made him faint. "There is one thing…" said the newcomer, "But as I also said on the roof, it's one in a million, last ditch, probably screwed anyway hope. That hope is in you, Raven."

The team turned towards Raven; she had obviously left out this part in her retelling of Strata's musings. Raven quickly spoke, "We've been over that; I'm not a person to be associated with hope."

"And as I already said, you already have hope in you. It's why I'm here, Raven. There's no Raven in Steel City or Gotham or in Metropolis. You're special; you don't like to admit it, but you are."

"But why…"

"…Because you are! It's just like that! If I always walked around asking 'Why me? Why was I cursed with the pain of watching Ragnarok's power grow all these years?' I'd have gone mad long ago. You are special because you are Raven; you are special because you are you. I suggest that you get over it and get used to the idea of you being Raven, the dark girl from Azarath who happened to survive a brutal slaying by a mighty beast named the Raging Ragnarok and who happened to send him flying away with out any logical reason as to how when this entire planet should have been well on its way to destruction as Ragnarok made his way around the world slowly destroying everything in his sight until he could not find one stone on top of another." Strata stopped to catch his breath.

Starfire spoke next, "How can Friend Raven help us? Last time we fought the Raging Ragnarok our powers, including hers, were no good against him."

Robin answered, "We lasted a couple rounds against him, but we couldn't really hurt him, only distract him."

Strata talked again, "I don't know how she made him fly away, return to his current prison. Ragnarok's psyche is a delicate balance of only two forces: rage and deep sorrow." Strata glanced at Raven, "Ragnarok's rage is foremost. Destruction is the only item that subdues his sorrow. Somehow, you found a way to bring the sorrow to the center and distract the rage long enough that he could not handle himself. Usually when the sorrow gets to him the rage only intensifies more to cover it, but you did something."

"I may have just been fortunate; I didn't really do anything."

"Yeah, but something happened and that's our hope."

Cyborg spoke next, "Our hope is to make it happen again."

"Yes."

"How do we do that?" asked Robin.

"I have no idea," asked Strata.

"When will that monster be here?" asked Beast Boy.

"Soon," said Strata, "If I had to guess, it's only a matter of days before his power swells enough to leave his current prison. I think what Raven did to him last time will cause him to come here; it'll be the last thing he remembers destroying."

"Lucky me," said Raven, "And this is supposed to give me hope? I'm the last person he couldn't destroy?"

Strata smiled a wry grin, "Nice being special isn't it?"

"Time for lunch," said Robin, "Even bad jailers and special people need to eat."

"Very funny, Robin," sneered Raven.

* * *

Lunch ensued, with Cyborg cooking hot dogs. Starfire insisted that Strata be allowed to stay another night since he had been the chief reason for the defeat Punk Rocket earlier. Robin agreed, wanting to continue observing Strata, who still had too many unsolved mysteries about him. And so afternoon drifted into the evening as Titand headed for bed. Raven took a nap during the afternoon to catch up on the sleep she had lost the night before talking with Strata. Strata did the same. 

Strata awoke late in the evening, his watch telling him it was 11 p.m. He got out of bed, dressed himself, and put his backpack on his shoulders. Exiting the room, he headed for the front door of the Tower.

As Strata approached the front door, Raven descended from the ceiling, "Leaving so soon?" she cooed.

"You're still suspicious of me?"

"I thought we agreed that I was observing you."

"You should rest; you've been observing me plenty."

"I rested today to guard tonight; you have a history of evening redevouzes. So, where are you going?"

"I'm leaving, Raven. I came to a decision tonight."

"What's that?"

"I don't want for you to end up like Alisha. I don't want you to die. Encountering Ragnarok is fatal. You are special; I see that now. So, I'm going to leave and try to save you."

"I thought you said that Ragnarok is coming here. What will you leaving do?"

"I think I can draw him off for a time. Time enough for you to escape."

"I'm a Teen Titan; we don't run."

"Then you will die. I know you think you can stand against what's coming but I've been around this power too long to know that death is inevitable. If you stay, you will die."

"What would you have us do? Put on backpacks and run around the world like you—scaring whoever we meet with unverified stories about rampaging monsters?"

"Hey, that hurts."

"Well, it should. You can't leave Strata; I'm not leaving. I've put in too much time, energy, and blood into making this city my home. If you had a home, you would understand that."

"I did have a home, Raven, or did you forget my story about me being only one of three survivors of the war that destroyed it, Ragnarok being another. I know what it's like to see all you love be destroyed before you eyes. If you stay, for your sake I hope you die before Ragnarok subjects you to that horror."

"But you said Ragnarok didn't destroy your home."

"No."

"Why?"

"It was already in ruin by the time we met."

"Why must you leave?"

"To give a special person a chance to live, to give you and your friends a chance to find life elsewhere. This city's time has come; much like it came for mine."

"Don't go. You don't belong out there; you know that. There's no life for you to find out there either."

"There was never any life to find for me anywhere; that's my fate under the moon. You going to stop me?"

Raven thought for a moment, "No," she said with the tiniest, indiscernable touch of sadness in her voice.

"Raven, I just want to say this: get your friends, get in that T-Ship, and fly to another planet away from this one as fast as you can go. It's all the hope I think I have left."

"You said I had hope. You said I was filled with it!"

"I say a lot of things. Goodbye, Raven."

"Goodbye, Strata."

With that, Strata turned towards the door, pushed the release button, and strode out into the night. As the door automatically shut, Raven could only look out at the moon which was coming into view on the east side of the tower. She saw the stranger walk out into the night, with as little announcement as his coming just shy of two days ago.

"You'll be back Strata," thought Raven to herself…

"A bad check always returns."

To be continued…

* * *

_So, with the success upon the defeat of Punk Rocket, the stranger quietly leaves with the ominous tidings of even darker days ahead. But is this the really the last of Strata? What is his full connection with the ominous threat of the Raging Ragnarok? Is Raven really the Titans' only hope? And where is Strata going? And how much of Strata's revelations are true anyway? And so, we give way to Chapter 9, already in the works. _

_Please R&R, it is a joy to read your responses; we writers put a lot of work into these things, and some feedback is always appreciated._


	9. Encounters at the City's Edge

_My very special thanks to all my reviewers so far. It's been great having you along on the joy of writing this story. I still endeavor to keep my writing up to a level that all can enjoy. For those just joining us, you might find reading the quick catch-up at the beginning of Chapter 6 helpful—though you should read the whole story, it'll help with picking up the mysteries. But enough of this introduction, when we last left the Titans, the Severing Strata, the enigmatic teen who claims to be the jailer of the Raging Ragnarok left the Titans in the middle of the night after a drama-filled 48 hours with warnings to Raven to leave the planet as Ragnarok was drawing near._

_We rejoin the story just shortly after Strata's sudden departure. Now might be a good time to review Chapters 2 & 3 if you have not…_

"The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast"

Chapter 9: Encounters at the City's Edge

Raven stood upon the roof of the Titans Tower gazing out over the city's shore. "Too many mysteries," she thought. "Strata's disappearance only adds more anxiety to an already tense situation." She fixed her eyes out over the sleeping city, staring at the road that Strata had been before he had finally walked out of her vision, deeper into the city's core. The cool evening wind rustled her cloak. She drew it tighter to warm herself. She turned her head and focused her view on the roof about her, where only last night she had spent the evening listening to the stranger's commentaries on herself, the moon, and his strange past. "For a guy who claimed to be coming here seeking me to be his last hope, you sure left in a hurry, Severing Strata," she whispered to herself. Her thoughts were broken by the sound of footsteps upon the rooftop. "You're up late," said Raven, without turning around, having long been able to distinguish the sound of Cyborg's metal feet from the other team members.

Each Titan had long had a distinguishing foot-sound to Raven. Cyborg had his gait accentuated by metal thuds. Starfire's noise was a barely audible "woosh" as she almost floated from footstep to footstep. Robin's normal footsteps were barely audible at all—no doubt a result of his training with the True Master. Raven often found Beast Boy's gait varied and reminding her of frolicking wood creatures—a parallelism in the unorganized life of the Titans' youngest member.

"Sleep is a luxury when you have a battery pack for a chronometer. Besides, you're one to talk."

"I was on guard duty."

"So am I. It's my turn to take over for you tonight regarding the watching of Strata. I set my internal alarm this time so you couldn't ignore it this time, unlike last night."

"Not that it matters. He's gone."

"What? When did he leave?"

"About 45 minutes ago. He just walked out the front door, told me to flee the planet."

"And you let him go?"

"Yes. Probably for the best."

"I hope it is. There's much more to that guy than is on the surface."

"I wouldn't worry about losing him."

"Oh, why not?"

"He'll be back."

"How do you know he's not gone forever?"

Raven paused for a moment, then turned her eyes from Cyborg back towards the slumbering city, "Because," she replied, "We're not that lucky."

* * *

"Home," thought the stranger to himself, "is very elusive concept, personally."

The Severing Strata had been trudging through the city steadily since leaving Raven and the Titans' door nearly an hour before hand. His watch gave him a time just past midnight, not that time was of great import to someone with no one place to be at any particular time. Strata had once thought of just throwing his watch away but always hesitated as he had always hoped for a day when he would actually have a place that he needed to be at a particular point in time. "Some people might be glad to never have to be tied down by time," he thought, "I, however, would at least just once like an appointment so that I would know that I was someone worthy of meeting on time." He kept marching on, having long ago developed a talent for transitioning from place to place swiftly with his backpack on.

Strata's thoughts were more devoted to the concept of home then time, though. He too often remembered the fires of the wars of his former homeland. There had been no place to call home since his house was demolished in the final wave of destruction. There had been no hope for his house, just like there had been no hope for either him or Alisha, just like there was no hope for him or this city or…Raven. "I hope she leaves," he thought to himself, "But I highly doubt that that will happen. She has found a new home now, and I of all people know how hard it is to give one of those up."

So Strata continued his solitary trudge through the moonlight that fell on Jump City. He was not sure where to go and did not particularly care as long as it was away from here, away from the Titans, away from _her_. "If I can save anyone by leaving," thought the newcomer, "I need it to be her. I need to save someone from Ragnarok." He shuddered at the thought of what he believed to be the very imminent threat. His melancholy was beginning to slip into depression. "Is there no hope for people like me in this world?" he said out loud to himself.

"No, there isn't," said an all too troubling female voice in the shadows in the nearby alley."

Strata gazed into the darkness, wondering if he had been followed from Titans Tower, "Raven?" he asked, "Is that you?"

A shrill cackle came from the alleyway. A young figure, pale, and in dark clothing emerged from the shadows. "You wish, sword-boy; you're going to have a very rough night." Strata recognized the girl instantly. It was Jinx, that rough-housing girl he had taught a lesson to two days ago and who had subsequently almost flattened him into the pavement with her hexes before the Titans had bailed him out. Jinx narrowed her eyes, which were glowing a very vibrant pink, and glared at Strata. "And it's going to be a very nice night for me. I don't believe I've been this happy to see such a waste of breath in quite some time."

Strata turned towards Jinx and assumed a defensive stance. He remembered too well (and still had the bruises to remind him) how her curses had cut through his weapons. He glanced her over and noticed what seemed different about her. Jinx was wearing a hat, a baseball cap to be precise. It was yellow and had a black bill with black lettering on it which read: "HIVE 5 Party Gurl." Strata chuckled, "Nice hat. But I think you were prettier with the paint smeared across you."

Jinx growled at him, "I wouldn't have to wear this dumb thing if you had kept your blasted scissors away from my glorious hair! Do you have any idea how long it took me to fix my other horn to get this ponytail straight? You are so dead…Oooo…I shudder at thinking about the un-ladylike things I'm about to flatten your face into."

"Yeah, Jinx has been in a particularly bad mood lately," said Private HIVE who emerged from the alley on the opposite side of the road. "And not just because Mammoth crashed into her wall again last night!" Private HIVE laughed heartily. Strata noticed Mammoth striding into view about thirty feet in front of him.

"So, we've been tailing you for the last ten minutes," said Seemore, striding up behind Strata, until the newcomer was in the middle of a large diamond formed by four of the HIVE members. "We don't like being beaten by the Titans, but as they aren't here and you are, we thought a nice ambush might suit our night."

Gizmo flew in on his jet pack and hovered over the scene. "I got the chains!" he called. Mammoth grimaced. "Oh, and you little snotsniffer," said Gizmo, yelling at Strata, "Prepare for pain."

Strata's hands glowed blue with energy. "Bring it on you fashionably challenged dorks! I got nothing to lose tonight!" He felt another tremor inside of him, "Oh, oh," thought Strata, "Ragnarok's very close, and I doubt these guys will take a rain check."

"Fashionably challenged?" shrieked Jinx, "I get this from a guy carrying around a dingy army backpack like some vagrant just arrived in town! (This was actually a pretty accurate description for Strata.) As if I could be fashionably challenged—Gizmo maybe—but me, never! HIVE 5 attack!"

Strata released his backpack from his shoulders. "Time for a brawl," he thought, "I do seem to be attracting a lot of weirdoes lately." His left arm glowed and his energy formed a shield on that arm. He rained it and deflected Private Hive's projectile shield which had been the first attack. "Is that all you can do?" he yelled at the yellow-clad villain. Strata ducked a hexing wave from Jinx that had been clearly aimed at his head.

Wanting to get out of the center of the trap they had set him in, Strata charged forward towards Mammoth. He saw energy beams from Seemore, who was still behind Strata fly past his head. Mammoth smirked to see the clearly outmuscled Strata charge at him. Strata raised his left arm to block a beam from Seemore and then released his shield while still charging at the behemoth The shield disappeared.

Mammoth called to Strata, "Bring your fight here! I will bury you in the street!"

"As you wish," said Strata, still running at the largest HIVE member. When he was about 10 feet from Mammoth he dropped his arms to the ground in stride as if about to do a handspring. His hands glowed blue and using his powers, Strata formed a large coiled spring from his hands. Slamming the spring into the ground, Strata catapulted himself into the air, feet first, towards Mammoth. His timing was perfect. On trajectory, Strata planted his feet squarely into Mammoth's face. The beast was thrown backwards, dazed by Strata's sudden altitude change. Strata got up and was standing on Mammoth. "Now who's buried?"

"Don't let him escape!" yelled Private Hive who heaved his shield at the newcomer.

"You're not going anywhere!" cried Seemore who fired a new wave of energy beams.

Strata turned and faced the two attacks. He leaped backwards and deflected the projectile shield with another blue energy shield of his own. With his right hand now going blue, he let out a small cord of energy towards the ground. The energy formed a blue mass at the end of the cord below Mammoth's head. Manipulating his energy while blocking with the shield in his left hand, Strata formed a small car jack on the ground which was still attached to his hand by the thin cord. The jack went into motion below Mammoth's head and with only needing to manipulate the shape of his energy, Strata raised the dazed Mammoth with the jack in only 2 seconds, directly in front of him and into the oncoming path of Seemore's energy beams.

Sparks flew as Seemore's interrupted assault hit the behemoth ensuring Strata's safety behind the half-beast and that Seemore would get at least three of his eyes beaten black by Mammoth whenever he awoke. When Seemore paused his assault, Strata released both his shield and the cord that connected to the jack. Both objects disappeared having lost contact with Strata's hands and the unconscious Mammoth tumbled onto his back as the jack supporting him vanished.

"Incompetent bootsniffers!" yelled Gizmo. "He's mine!" Gizmo flew on his jetpack towards Strata and descended into a dive. He launched a flurry of laser blasts at Strata, which the newcomer blocked with another shield. Gizmo pulled out of his dive and flew into the air and began soaring in circles above the stranger. "Let's see how you deal with this." The evil boy genius pushed a button on his chest and five holograms of Gizmo appeared and began flying around Strata in crossing patterns. Lasers rained down from above. Three hit Strata, and one laser hit his shield but simply vanished as it was from a hologram. One of the lasers that hit Strata's back was real and sent Strata tumbling towards the ground.

The six Gizmos in the air laughed, "What's the matter, beatlehugger? Can't tell the real genius from the fake ones?" The holograms launched another crisscrossing laser barrage from above.

Strata kept rolling on the ground so that he dodged the lasers. His hands glowed blue as he tried to keep moving to dodge Gizmo. His energy in both hands formed to large boomerangs. As he rolled to the point where he was facing upwards, he threw the boomerangs into the air. The spinning projectiles, attached to Strata's hands by a small cord emanating from their center cut through the air and each connected with a hologram projection of Gizmo which vanished upon contact. On their return path, the left boomerang connected with a third one, while the right one connected into the back of the real Gizmo. "Oof!" muttered the boy genius as the projectile sliced through one of his wings. "Lucky shot!" Gizmo's holograms disappeared, and the soaring villain plummeted head-first into the unforgiving ground.

Strata got up off the ground. "If you don't think my aim with my boomerangs are good, try my slapshot!" He released the boomerangs, which vanished, and in his hands formed a hockey stick. Aiming, he wacked Gizmo with the hockey stick and sent the evil boy flying into Jinx, who tumbled backwards. "Nice save!" snickered Strata. He released the solid blue hockey stick from his hands, and it instantly disappeared.

"Time to make you see things in a new way!" shouted Seemore. His frame on his head rotated to a new eye, and he launched one of his eye-prison capsules at Strata.

"Not this again," thought Strata. His right hand glowed blue and the energy extended outward from his hand and moved backwards up to his elbow. The energy focused into a large drill bit, which began rotating rapidly. Strata heaved the spinning bore at the coming prison bubble like he was throwing a punch. The drill connected and the bubble tore mid-fight before it could connect with Strata. "Fortunately, I remember how to destroy these things."

"Blast you!" shouted Seemore and he began moving his eye frame to a point where he could shoot lasers again.

"No! Drill you!" retorted Strata. He raised the drill bit towards Seemore, and the spinning bore launched from his hand towards Seemore, revealing Strata's arm from where the bit had been. The bit cut through the air, connected back to Strata's fist by a chain. The spinning bit connected with Seemore's eye-frame and damaged his black X-ray vision lens (something that would please Jinx very much when she discovered it later). Sparks flew from Seemore's helmet.

"Aargh!" yelled the multi-eyed villain. "Now I'm going to have to put replacement lenses in! Do you know how hard it is to find contact lenses this big?" He writhed on the ground trying to stop the sparks in his eyes as Strata released the chain, and the drill disappeared.

"That should handle you guys," said Strata. He turned to get his backpack. He felt an uneasiness in his gut and a growing pain in his head. "Ragnarok is very close; he thought. I may only have minutes left to leave the city." He reached towards his pack when a spinning yellow object collided into the back of his head. Strata felt the world get very dizzy as Private Hive's shield connected with his skull.

"Forget about someone?" said Private Hive. "Even if this is all I could do, it seems to have taken care of you!"

Strata raised his eyes off the pavement. That had not been pleasant but the growing threat of Ragnarok was weakening him even more. He could feel that his prisoner was drawing near—but how near? He suddenly felt very tired as he saw Gizmo being tossed aside as Jinx picked herself off the ground and walked over to him.

"Good work, Private Hive," said the young witch. She raised her arm and sent Strata and his backpack thrashing across the pavement. Her eyes glowed anticipating the revenge she was about to extract. "Now, Strata," said Jinx, cracking her knuckles in her hand, "I believe we've been like this before—only those Titans got in my way. They won't this time."

"Jinx," gasped Strata, "You've got to let me go! Something's coming; something big. It will destroy all it finds. I have to lead it away!"

"That is probably the worst beg for mercy I've ever heard, and I've seen Gizmo cry!" sneered Jinx. She flicked out her hand at Strata was sent rolling again by another hexing wave.

Strata gasped for breath, "If I say I'm sorry about your hair and say that I like your hat, will you let me go?"

Jinx glared at Strata. "Well…" she began, "No." Her eyes glowed with pink evil.

Private Hive laughed as the other HIVE 5 members began to struggle to their feet. "There's nothing like a late night beat down."

Strata assessed his situation. He was sure an appearance by Ragnarok was imminent; there was no holding it back. The HIVE 5 members had no idea the delicate precipice they were all walking, him included.

Strata was a little short of ideas. He was sure Ragnarok would be the end of this city, if not the planet. He also knew that he could not prevent his prisoner's appearance. He felt a growing apocalypse in his soul.

Jinx walked towards him, energy dancing off her hands.

"Of course…" thought Strata as the young witch and her cohorts bared down on him…

"…I might not live long enough to see him coming."

_To Be Continued…_

_The HIVE 5 is back and meaner than ever! Is Jinx's revenge the end of Strata? Is Ragnarok the end of Strata, should he appear? Is Strata so doomed right now that it does not really matter? Why did he decide to flee so suddenly? Is there anyway to stop Ragnarok if he comes? What can we say people: Chapter 10! R&R everybody! Review before the world ends! _

_Also, special thanks to the manager of the "The Real OC" C2 Teen Titans community for adding my story to their lineup! Check out this C2 community that features original characters in Teen Titans stories! I hope to make Strata and Ragnarok fine additions!  
_


	10. Ragnarok Redux Part I

_Ah, the joy of updating—it has been too long, dear readers. Shortly after updating you of Strata's latest encounter with the HIVE 5, my laptop decided to take an unauthorized extended vacation that was only ended with an extensive modification of the registry, a complete OS re-install, and careful editing of its system file involving a missing letter "l." That, my graduate coursework, and the family responsibilities of the Thanksgiving season, is why Chapter 10 has not debuted until now. As always, I thank you for your patience and assure all that this story will not end until I can write "THE END" in large capital letters across the bottom—so stick with me. But, enough about the plebian exploits of this poor author; let us return to our story, which thankfully has considerable more explosions this chapter. When we last left our plot, the mysterious stranger, the Severing Strata, who claims to be connected to the powerful Raging Ragnarok, is in a dire predicament as the HIVE 5 have him surrounded after he left the Titans. Raven and Cyborg are still on the Tower roof, and Strata believes that the second coming of the Raging Ragnarok is at hand. Now might be a good time to review Chapter 1 for background. Now let us rejoin our story…_

"The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast"

Chapter 10: Ragnarok Redux (Part I)

"Anybody interested in a joke?" asked Strata as he felt his minutes were numbered—and the number was not in double digits, "I know a great one about a rhinoceros and an elephant with a stuttering problem."

"I have a joke for you," said Jinx, "here's the punch line!" She slammed her glowing fist into Strata sending him flying into his backpack just behind him.

"Hey, I thought the hat said you were the 'HIVE 5 Party Gurl,'" murmured Strata, "can't you lighten up some?"

"Still trying to be the funny dead-man?" sneered Jinx at the mention of her cosmetically-necessary headware. "Don't worry about me being happy; I think you're about to discover that we take a lot of pleasure in our work!"

Private HIVE laughed deep. "Yeah, loser, we're feeling great about our work, and you're about to be worked on!"

Gizmo raised himself onto his spider leg frame and lowered a large laser pointed at Strata. "Hey, Booger-brain, it's time for you to learn while we're the real funny men!"

"Funny people! It's funny people!" yelled Jinx. "Must you idiots always ignore the fact that I'm here? And must you always follow-up my jokes with your corny lines? And Gizmo, can't you even come up with a better insult that 'Booger-brain'; it's really sad how much I have to be the brains of this outfit, you so-called boy genius!"

"Hey, if you're so smart how come you're the one in the goofy hat?" asked Gizmo.

Mammoth laughed, "That hat really is perfect for you Jinx; it's as yellow as the paint that guy we're beating up dumped on you."

Jinx glared at all of her teammates, "Mammoth, I am so personally going to wrap you in those chains when we get back the hideout. And quit it about my hat! It's not my fault that that guy ruined my mane—my beautiful masterpiece. You look like a shaggy dog!"

Seemore walked back up, having replaced the X-ray lens that Strata broke. "Speaking of that guy, he's getting away!"

Strata, while rarely one to leave a good argument, had taken this opportunity of the HIVE 5 warring with themselves to start running with his backpack towards one of the dark alleys. Unfortunately, due to his injuries, he had not gotten very far when Seemore spotted him, and it is doubtful that he could have gotten far anyway as Gizmo sent him sprawling with a laser shot on his calf.

"You're not going anywhere, Booge….err…YOU!" yelled Gizmo.

Strata forced himself to his feet. He was not in good shape and was at this moment trying to come up with some really catchy last words to say before he died. He felt a pain lurch through him and felt as if his entire psyche was beginning to melt away. "Ragnarok is very close," thought Strata, "He's so close I can feel his rage upon us. He's coming here—any second now."

Strata faced his attackers, "Listen guys, you gotta let me go. Something's coming that will destroy us all. It'll start with me, but this whole city won't be far behind. I have to get far away for all our sakes."

Private HIVE laughed, "You're some piece of work, ya know? That has to be the lamest plea for mercy I've heard yet. Can't you just beg like a normal coward?"

Strata remembered something. He reached for his left hand around his backpack to a small pocket on its lower side. "Do you guys know I was a soldier back home? Well, I was. This backpack along with my photo of my sister is almost all I have left of home. Well, almost everything… So are you gonna let me go?"

Seemore laughed this time. "No way! We of the HIVE 5 are all about quality time with our subjects."

Jinx cackled, "I'm just wondering which of your bones to break first."

Strata smiled, "And I'm just wondering why you let me get to my backpack. A good soldier always has one of these around—my last memento from an ill-gone war." Strata pulled his hand around, yanked a pin out of a metal object, and threw a metal sphere above the HIVE 5. He turned and dove for the dark alley as he felt an incredible tremor of foreboding come over him. His entire body rolled into a dark corner, and he felt himself faint with terror.

"Time's up," said Strata.

The HIVE 5 felt no internal tremors and heard none of Strata's gloomy words as their quarry collapsed in the darkness. They were all fixated on the object Strata had released above them. The metal sphere landed on the ground among them and erupted in an array of blinding light and furious noise that stunned and disoriented all of them and sent them reeling backwards blinded and disoriented.

"A flash-bang grenade!" yelled Gizmo, still covering his overstimulated eyes, "The little toe-jammer had a trick up his sleeve!"

"Aargh! All my eyes!" yelled Seemore, who was literally blinded in all directions.

It was at that moment that the entire ground under the HIVE exploded and a huge beam of light covered the block they were on. The earth below the city shook and flames danced around where the HIVE 5 had just been as embers of flame appeared on nearby trees, and lights came on in houses around the city as it awoke to a very bad night. The ground where the earth had exploded, from where the HIVE 5 had been launched backwards, from where Strata had collapsed had become a giant crater, yet nothing had seemed to impacted it. From seemingly out of nowhere, a pillar of smoke rose from that crater and fumes poured out in every direction covering the sky around the street and blanketing the area with a thick, pervasive fog. What happened in those moments no one is quite sure only that satellite photos could not pierce the haze; the cameras could only capture the spreading smoke and the fire that ringed around it like dancers at a festival.

The smoke billowed around the battleground where Strata and the HIVE 5 had engaged in their midnight melee. The few people who were nearby fled in great panic, fleeing from an unknown darkness, an unknown yet all-too-well felt menace that had come upon the city. The pavement of the street creaked as if the very earth of Jump City was weakened by the arrival of a great plague, a scourge that the municipality could not, despite all its desire to, reject back into the unknown void from whence it had came.

And so, it was at that moment, the moment when the HIVE 5 were at first blinded and disoriented by Strata's grendade, the moment when that same person fled under that grenade's cover but collapsed in the darkness—the only person in that instant able to perceive that the madness from the chaos was coming—, the moment when Raven and Cyborg stood gazing out upon the city from the top of the tower just before the explosion and the quaking, it was at that moment that destiny kept its schedule and rage revisited Jump City with no warning but an enigmatic boy who talked in riddles.

Seemore struggled to his feet, blown back by the earthquake and shock wave. Gazing about he saw his HIVE 5 comrades sprawled across the pavement. Looking about his gaze was severely hindered by the fog of smoke that almost blocked out the pale light from the full moon above. He saw small fires all around the street. Then, he looked forward toward the crater.

To Seemore's shock stood a hulking giant, about 6.5 meters tall clad in armor of the darkest purple trimmed with red bands at the armbands, the belt, the knees and boots, and around a high metal collar. There was no gap in the armor, only a small slit in a spherical head of armor that featured to eye-like dots of flame against an unforgiving black void. The giant was hunched over gazing downward and unmoving, looking at nothing in particular in the crater and was as still as a statue in the Jump City Park.

"What is this?" said Seemore, wondering if the grenade Strata had tossed before that little coward had bolted was making him hallucinate. Seemore perceived the towering figure before him. "He's even bigger than Mammoth…no…three Mammoths." Seeking more data, the HIVE 5 member switched his vision over to X-ray mode and glared into the interior of the mighty beast. He was taken aback by what he found, "I can see nothing but fire in there; there's just fire—not even in any shape, not even in the shape of the figure but just lots of fires inside. What trick is this?"

Slowly the other HIVE 5 members were getting to their feet. "Look at that thing," said Private HIVE, "What is it Gizmo?"

"How should I know? Looks like whatever it was knocked us backwards; there's no way that snot-faced buddy of the Titans who through that little pop-grenade could do that."

"So that thing hit us?" said Mammoth, "Uh, do we hit it back?"

Seemore held up his hand, "Let's not do that. There's something really funny about that guy…thing whatever. I haven't even seen it move."

Mammoth snorted, displeased that someone was trying to stop him from finishing his pounding, "We'd better hit it while it's down then. I've already lost two completing good poundings to that punk Strata, and I don't plan on leaving tonight without a good pounding."

Gizmo spoke next, "Will you not use your head furball? Whatever that is, it's at least three-times your size!"

Mammoth chortled, "Ha! You mean it's at least ten times your size, small-fry!" Gizmo seethed. Mammoth continued, "Actually, if you look at it with your head sideways, it's all purple and its eyes are like fire…"

"It looks like that when your head is straight!" corrected Seemore.

"Yeah, well, what I'm saying is that when you look at it all purple and its eyes like fire it reminds me a lot of Jinx when she gets really mad."

"I HEARD THAT!" roared a voice from behind them all. Jinx was as livid as a squirrel that was missing a nut. She had lost out on her revenge while enduring countless insults from Strata, been knocked backwards more times than she had brain cells to remember, and had only just now re-found the very ugly hat that was only thing making her ponytail look straight. So, Mammoth, who had now kept her without much sleep for two consecutive nights, was treading on a suspension bridge without handrails that likes to watch people fall. "You boundlessly blundering blobs of boys! I would seriously reconsider ticking me off tonight! Ooo, you guys are so frustrating—I could practically pull my hair out!"

"At this point, that would be practically making yourself bald," retorted Mammoth. He paid for that comment by being slammed backwards by a particularly nasty set of hexing waves that would leave his back aching for the next two days.

Jinx marched up in front of them and yelled at mighty beast, "So, you're the ignoramus who interrupted the fun of the HIVE 5? Buddy, I don't know who you think you are, but you're luck has just run out!"

Seemore gasped sensing what was coming, "Jinxy, darling, I don't think you should…"

Jinx waved her hand and Seemore joined Mammoth on the pavement, "I'm nobody's darling, Seemore—especially not yours!" She refocused her rage on the one target that needed no more rage, the massively towering monstrosity. "Take this!" She launched a set of hexing waves directly at the beast's head. The monster's head turned slightly in the direction that the waves hit his spherical helmet but made no reaction. Jinx's second wave turned it in the other direction, but again no reaction from the hulking beast.

"What not caring to reply? That's fine; I can appreciate a silent guy tonight!" cackled Jinx, not sensing that she was stunning nothing, only receiving a treatment of indifference from her poorly chosen foe. She powered up an incredibly powerful wave, her eyes glowed with pink fury, she summoned up all her anger and rage and angst that a wronged evil female can offer and launched it in hexing fury at her opponent.

When the waves hit the monster, it shook him slightly. It made its first movement, a step backward as it absorbed the impact of Jinx's assault. Jinx's attack was powerful enough it actually moved a forearm to its chest to take some force. It then shifted its leg back to its original position and stood up to its full height. Its fiery gaze perceived Jinx then looked up at the moon through the smoky haze, its focus pierced the heavens and it roared, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

This clearly strange reaction puzzled Jinx not at all, not even that it had bared the brunt of her best stuff with only a step backward, "If you want your enemy look down here!" She shook her fist at the enemy. "What are you?"

This caught the monster's attention. It looked at Jinx with a sudden downward turn of its massive head—the quickest move it had made yet—and glared at her with its burnt embers. Apparently finding nothing that suited it, it roared above them, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Not here! Not here!" yelled Gizmo, who was beginning to understand exactly what kind of power was in front of them, "Jinx, don't make it mad!"

Jinx's head had cleared after releasing all her vengeful force at the monster and took a few steps backward and re-joined her comrades, "What am I doing?"

"Good question," said the other four in unison.

"Where's that punk, Strata?" said Private Hive.

"No clue," said Seemore, rubbing his aching back, "He was gone when I came to. Last thing I remember was that grenade going off, falling over, and then feeling like I was at the center of an earthquake."

The monster, meanwhile, caring nothing for the tribulations of the HIVE 5 slammed a fist downward into the ground and the earth shook in recoil as the mighty beast yelled into the night sky, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Again with the questions?" said Gizmo, "Funny, we seem to want the same thing…our enemy…Hey! You think that giant jelly-blob could be looking for Strata?"

"That annoyance was babbling about something coming and having to leave," said Jinx. "That might be the first plea for life I've heard that was actually true."

"What should we do about that?" said Seemore.

"Nothing," said Jinx, "With any luck, that bothersome pest is at the bottom of that hole under that monster's shoe."

"Sounds like it's time to go," said Private Hive. "That thing is getting uppity, and I don't like the size of that fist."

"Let's scram," said Gizmo.

The HIVE 5 turned to leave, but they did not get far. In an instant they heard a loud whoosh and the road they were walking on was leveled by the leaping giant who had jumped into the air above them and landed in the street in front of them blocking their way. The giant leered downwards at him, his flame eyes flickering rapidly.

"Listen," said Mammoth, "Whatever you want, we don't have it."

"RAGE!" screamed the beast, and he raised both arms above his head and brought them down in mighty fashion. The HIVE 5 leaped sideways but were still blown backwards by the force of the monster's strength. "RAGE! RAGE! RAGE!" roared the menacing villain. "I…RAGE!" It turned its head towards an empty office complex, and its eyes flickered. With no warning, two massive beams were emitted from its visage and smote the complex in the roof. The buildings were instantly lit ablaze and the night sky flickered against the mighty torch. "RAGE…RAGE!" roared the beast. It turned and fired a fist at Mammoth. The behemoth was launched backwards over the first crater and onto the fractured street behind it. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Look out!" yelled Seemore. "It's beserk!" He fired energy beams from his eyes at the monster, but they exploded harmlessly on his foe's armor-clad right arm. The beast launched a chop at Seemore but the quicker HIVE 5 member dodged it and fired an eye-prison at the monster's arm.

The beast stopped and held up its right fist, which fit neatly into the eye-prison's maximum size. "RAGE!" yelled the furious titan, and he launched a second downward punch at Seemore with the fist still in the prison. Seemore dodged again as the prison-led fist smote the ground leaving a deep hole. The monstrosity raised its right arm again and extended its index finger against the bubble. The eye-prison burst with slightest touch. The monster turned upwards toward the moon, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" yelled the armored nightmare. "I…RAGE!"

"What are you?" yelled Jinx as their foe turned and punched an old gas station. There was a huge flame as a nearby gas storage tank exploded.

The beast looked at the scene that it had created. Fires were burning everwhere in only the short time since it realized they were there. The street was unrecognizable, a maze of broken asphalt. Slowly, the mighty beast levitated off his feet and into the air. It gazed upon its handiwork. "I…RAGE. I…RAGE…RAGE! I…RAGING RAGNAROK. I…RAGING RAGNAROK!" It turned its upwards again and roared to the stars, "I…RAGING RAGNAROK! WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Raging Ragnarok?" said Private Hive, "What is all of this going on? It attacks without purpose…without any apparent reason…"

Private HIVE's musings interested Ragnarok little, if he did at all hear them. The beast, now at a low hover over his battle zone launched a second wave of eyebeams at Private Hive, who dodged by throwing his shield into the oncoming death beams. It exploded in mid-air and the HIVE 5 member ran away. Ragnarok turned and launched a new set of beams into the first crater, and the ground within it exploded again and steaming water gushed from where the beast hit a water main. It then descended rapidly onto a nearby building, crushing it in its wake. "RAGE! RAGE! RAGE!" Ragnarok drove his fists into the ground in rapid succession as if wanting to crush every ant that could possibly be living under the sidewalk.

"Run!" yelled Gizmo.

_To Be Continued…_

_This ends Part I of a 2-chapter update. The next part, Chapter 11, was originally meant to be part of Chapter 10, but I decided to cut it in two of readability's sake and to avoid one extremely long chapter that takes forever to get down the page, similar to what I did with the Starfire/Strata/Punk Rocket chapters (7&8). However, unlike those chapters, Chapter 10 did not provide a good place to separate the story until it was three-fourths complete—anywhere else made the break too choppy. So, Chapter 11 is smaller than Chapter 10, about 1,200 words compared to ten's 3,300 words. So, go ahead and read Chapter 11 as you've come this far. It briefly rejoins the Titans before uniting the two scenes. (You were wondering if I was ever going to finish with the HIVE 5?)_

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_Also: I'm not a Jinx or a female character hater, which no one has accused me of, but I want to address out front after Part I. Starfire and particularly Raven have very positive portrayals in this story and aside perhaps from Strata, are probably the deepest characters I've portrayed. I find Jinx a very fun villain to work with. Every villain has their overplayed faults, and I see Jinx's as vanity and (similar to Ragnarok, but in a much different way) anger. Her being the only girl allows for gender-tension ways to exploit both. In many ways, I think Jinx's villain points are brought out by the male HIVE 5 members—which is why they are such a dysfunctional team and so well juxtaposed against the Titans in that way. But enough on that, Chapter 11 (with some nice Raven dialogue) is next. Please Read & Review!_


	11. Ragnarok Redux Part II

_This is the second and smaller part of a two-chapter update. If you just came into Chapter 11, this part was meant to be read originally as part of Chapter 10 but was cut in two during post-editing for readability's sake and to avoid one disproportionately long chapter. No long intro here, I shall merely say that this part returns to the Titans following the disappearance of Strata and the return of the Raging Ragnarok and its encounter with the HIVE 5. The story now turns very briefly from the battle scene to the Titans._

"The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast"

Chapter 11: Ragnarok Redux (Part II)

Upon her perch in Titans Tower, Raven had dropped to her knees holding her head in her hands, just shortly after Strata had collapsed and the earth shook for the first time.

"What's wrong?" said Cyborg, running to her aid. "Are you sick?"

Illness was a poor descriptor for Raven's senses, "No, I feel something, something powerful…something very angry. It seems familiar. We must hurry…so angry…so much rage…" She struggled to her feet but was still rubbing her forehead. "Wake the others."

At that moment, the first beam of light that had appeared just before Ragnarok had shot up into the heavens. The earth shook, and plumes of smoke were appearing on the horizon on the other side of the city.

Cyborg was startled, "Oh my, this can only mean…"

"Yes," said Raven, "The reprisal is at hand. Help me downstairs, Cyborg; I'm going to need some time to focus all that I'm sensing."

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Several minutes later, the T-Car appeared on the battle scene in time to see a wall of smoke in front of them but with visible multiple fires flickering through the blackness. The Titans ran out of the car and gazed at the scene. 

"There has been much mayhem in a very short time," said Starfire.

"Do you think Strata is in there?" said Cyborg.

"I don't know," said Raven, "Remember, I couldn't read anything on Strata in the Tower."

"This looks rough," said Beast Boy.

At that moment, the Titans heard screaming as the HIVE 5 came running into view, feeling Ragnarok as fast as their legs could run. Seemore, looking behind him to see if he was about to smitten by a heat beam, ran into Cyborg and bounced off his metal chasse. Cyborg picked him up and held him aloft.

"What are you doing here?" said Cyborg.

"Where's Strata?" demanded Robin.

Seemore was a little too freaked to be annoyed by the Titans, "That little punk vanished, through some device, and we were all blinded. Then that thing showed up, and it's been all mayhem from there!"

"What were you doing with Strata? You were attacking him again!" yelled Beast Boy.

"Yeah, well, that's what fun, you little do-gooder mongrel!"

"Why I oughtta…" said Cyborg.

"Let him go," said Robin, "We have bigger problems." Cyborg tossed Seemore behind them, and the young villain ran away after his feeling comrades. Robin turned toward Raven, "How are you?"

"A little better," said the darkest Titan, "I've gotten over the initial sensation; it hit me like one of Starfire's waffles. I felt it all the way from the Tower this time. I've no doubt that it's Ragnarok. Only there's even more sorrow this time which is coupled with ten times more rage. Clearly, his absence has not improved his mood."

"But where is the Ragnarok and the Strata?" said Starfire, "I see much burning, but none of either."

Her first person appeared directly. Ragnarok came striding out of the smoke, casually turning his head left and enflaming another office complex with his heat-vision. The building was consumed in flames. Ragnarok roared at the night sky, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"This again?" said Beast Boy, "He needs a new line."

"He burned that building like it was nothing!" said Cyborg, "Again, he attacks without cause or provocation!"

"RAGE!" yelled the mighty beast, "I…RAGE!"

"The Ragnarok is angry," said Starfire, "I know not what to do."

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Ragnarok!" shouted Raven, "Who is your enemy?"

"ENEMY!" yelled the monster. Ragnarok stomped his foot, and the ground shook as a small crater was formed.

"Ragnarok!" yelled Raven again, walking forwards nearer to the beast.

"Raven!" said Robin, "Be careful!"

"I am talking to the Raging Ragnarok!" yelled Raven, "Listen to me!"

The beast, not used to being called out or being commanded, actually stopped mashing his foot into the ground in the moment and turned its gaze toward Raven. Still about thirty yards from her, it did raise a fist into the air. "RAGE!"

"Is the Severing Strata your enemy? Where is Strata?" yelled the girl from Azarath.

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Is Strata your enemy? Did he keep you in a prison?"

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"Is Strata your ene…" Raven's words were cut short by Ragnarok. The mighty beast heaved both of his fists into the air and brought them down into the ground. The impact created a shock wave that rumbled towards the Titans sending them all sprawling to the ground and the T-Car rolling over onto its side. Ragnarok turned to his side away from the Titans and punched another building and stepped on a parked car.

"Raven, did you sense anything?" queried Cyborg.

"No, I can still only sense just rage. I have no idea if I anything I said affected him at all." A crushed parked car flew over the building. "Actually, I'm leaning towards being sure it didn't affect him at all."

"So is Strata not its enemy?" said Starfire.

"I think what Raven is saying, Starfire, is that we still can't be sure of what connects them." said Robin.

Cyborg spoke next as Ragnarok fired heat beams into the air, apparently at a passing bird, "One thing is for sure. We now know they are somehow connected; Strata predicted this. It can't be a coincidence. He was not lying about that."

"He did however lie about not coming here with a purpose first," said Beast Boy.

"That purpose being to find Raven," said Starfire, "But, after he did, he left us."

"So that may have been a lie," said Beast Boy, "This is all too confusing." Heat beams blew up a building beyond them. "Say, isn't he a lot more destructive this time?"

"He's even more angry," said Raven with intense focus on their quarry in front of them, "Also, we aren't fighting him this time."

"We aren't going to?" said Beast Boy, "That's a relief. We should re-group or do some other strategic thingy."

"That's not what she meant," said Robin. "Ragnarok is destroying everything it sees, albeit at a casual pace. Too much more of this, and it will have at least a quarter of the city in rubble or flames by dawn. Whatever the odds, we have to try to stop it or lots of people will be hurt."

"What of Strata?" asked Starfire.

"Who knows?" said Raven, rubbing her temples, "I'm getting sick of listening to him. Not even I'm that mysterious."

"If Strata's right, we don't stand a chance," said Cyborg, "We almost died last time."

"But we didn't" said Robin, "Strata said he came here with hope…"

"A fool's hope," interrupted Raven.

"…A fool's hope," said Robin, "To save our city, we are going to be that fool and the hope."

"We will not give this monster our home!" said Starfire. She yelled at Ragnarok, "This city is not yours to play with!" The monster turned towards them.

"That was great, Star," said Beast Boy, "Just get his attention then."

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

"It matters little," said Robin, "Our problem is the same. We fight for our city; there is always hope!…

"TITANS GO!"

_To Be Continued…_

_Can the Titans really beat Ragnarok? Where is Strata? What is the secret to Strata's past with Ragnarok? Why did Strata change his mind about getting help from Raven—if that was his idea at all? What about Strata's other mysteries—his home, his mysterious metal box with the three objects, and the war he claims destroyed his home and killed his sister? What was the final mission Strata claimed that he had? Can you feel the tension, readers; we have some exciting stuff ahead in Chapter 12! Please Read & Review—this two chapter update is almost 5,000 words!_


	12. Ragnarok Redux Part III

_Thanks to all my readers for their reviews. Hopefully, you all received the replies I sent to all my reviewers. Writing this story has been a real joy for me, and it's not over yet! I decided to go with a "Part III" title for this story even though it is separate from my last 2-chapter update because I thought the title best describes the chapter, a continuation of the main events of the last two. When we last left off, Strata had escaped the HIVE 5 by throwing a flash-bang grenade only to mysteriously collapse some 6,000 words ago. The HIVE 5's disorientation was quickly interrupted by the return of the Raging Ragnarok, his first appearance since Chapter 1. After defeating the HIVE 5 in a clearly one-sided battle and destroying a lot of real estate in the process, Ragnarok now faces the Titans who have arrived to try to stop the infernal beast and save their city despite their very bleak odds against mighty monster…_

"The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast"

Chapter 12: Ragnarok Redux (Part III)

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" roared the Raging Ragnarok, turning to flatten a second parked car with his mighty foot. "RAGE…RAGE…RAGE!" hollered the hulking armored giant.

Beast Boy gulped, "Do you think he eats animals? I'm really worried about him eating animals."

Cyborg shrugged and glanced at the fires raging around them, "He doesn't seem to have a mouth, only those flaming eyes."

Beast Boy stuttered, "I…I…I'm worried about those too." Water sprayed out of the ground as Ragnarok punched a fire hydrant.

"I am surprised at how much the Ragnarok will burn entire buildings from far away yet stop to make sure he punches the strange water objects," said Starfire.

"It's like Strata said," replied Robin, "He attacks without reason or purpose—a fire hydrant might as well be a skyscraper to him; it is something to break."

"Yet he does seem to be looking for someone," said Starfire, "This 'enemy' he continues to as about, we still do not know who that person is."

Raven rubbed her temples, her head still throbbing from sensing Ragnarok's appearance into the city. "Whatever that beast's mission is (if it even has one), Strata was not accommodating enough to enlighten us. We are, again, without a lead." The water spouting turned to a cloud of steam as Ragnarok seared it with his heat vision.

"RAGE! RAGE! I RAGE!" roared the monster.

Robin glanced at Raven, "You going to be okay?"

"Yes," said Raven, "The initial shock to my senses is fading; that monster is powerful on many levels—I've never felt such a sudden jolt to my system. Usually, I can sense power like this coming, but Ragnarok was sudden, unannounced."

"Do you still feel the rage, Raven?" asked Starfire.

"Yes, he is even angrier than before. I can still sense the sorrow deep within him; it has also grown more potent, but the rage…the rage…it is intense." The ground shook as more explosions were heard nearby. Ragnarok was punching his fists into the pavement, sending dust and rubble flying into air—destroying what little whole pieces of asphalt that he had not already destroyed in this section of the city.

"We can't wait any longer," said Robin, "Ragnarok might move toward a more populous section of the city. We have to try and stop him. We will open with this: I will run to his left; Cyborg, you run to his right. Raven, try to materialize behind him. Starfire, fly overhead. Beast Boy, Cyborg and I will begin and then when he's distracted, make your move. Titans, GO!"

Cyborg and Robin charged right at Ragnarok, who had turned towards them earlier. Cyborg ran to Ragnarok's right and fired his sonic cannon at Ragnarok. An explosion occurred on contact with the beam and Ragnarok's torso but the beast made no movement resembling a flinch a took a step towards Cyborg. Fortunately, Robin then made his move, throwing exploding disks at Ragnarok's helmet. The projectiles exploded on contact with the beast's helmet and collar but Ragnarok simply turned towards Robin as if he was an annoying fly. The beast roared and lowered his right fist towards Robin, seeking to smash him into the sidewalk. Robin, expecting that move, somersaulted backwards and out of the impact, which left a deep depression in the road, which had already suffered extensive abuse from Ragnarok's earlier scrap with the HIVE 5.

Robin's initial plan had worked wonderfully. As Ragnarok was pounding the pavement, the monster was rocketed backwards as he was rammed by a green triceratops. Ragnarok toppled over backwards, falling on his back into the rubble with a mighty crash. "Got him!" yelled Beast Boy, reverting back to his human form. "Raven, now!" yelled Robin.

A black bird appeared for a moment above Ragnarok, the dark energy focused as Raven appeared, hovering a few feet off the ground, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" chanted Raven and large chunks of rubble from Ragnarok's devastation lifted off the ground, coated with dark energy. Raven extended her arms outward and the rubble rained down upon the prostrate Ragnarok like falling meteors, burying the beast under his own debris. "There," said Raven, "You now officially have more rocks in your head than Beast Boy."

Raven's dry wit was cut short by a mighty roar as Ragnarok exploded out of the pile of rubble raising his arms in the air and staring in the sky, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" roared the colossal monster and he focused his gaze on Raven. "RAGE!" yelled the beast and moved towards the dark girl.

"I'll give you something to yell about," said Raven. She drew her arms toward her and circled her hands and focused them outwards, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Extending her arms outward her cape flared out around her and a beam of dark energy cascaded into Ragnarok pushing him backwards.

Ragnarok howled and roared and raised his right arm as Raven's beam hit him in the upper chest. The flames that flickered where his eyes should have been danced. Raven could sense Ragnarok's anger growing; he was seething now at the end of her beam. Green starbolts, exploding disks, and sonic cannon blasts exploded on Ragnarok's back as the other Titans came in to assist Raven, but the monster ignored all of that. Fighting against Raven's force beam and the dark energy trickling around his torso, Ragnarok stepped forward into the current of Raven's power.

Raven clenched her teeth and groaned, pushing all of her power into the beast's frame. She could not back down now; she could not lose focus. Ragnarok stepped forward again holding his right arm out to catch most of the energy. Raven realized her peril. If she released the beam or her power gave out, which would not be long considering the stress her body was taking doing this, Ragnarok would pounce. But, if he could march on her in spite of her best efforts to repel him, her fate would be no better.

The other Titans rained weapons down upon Ragnarok. Cyborg ran up behind him and yelled, "Hey, giant purple monster guy, eat this!" Small missiles fired from Cyborg's spokes and exploded into the back of Ragnarok. This made the beast bend for a second, but Ragnarok merely stood back up against Raven's beam, only turning his head and emitting a heat beam at the ground, causing a large fire, to deter a green elephant from charging. The behemoth turned his gaze towards Raven again and took another step towards her.

Raven's shoulders were straining under the burden of keeping her beam going. She was having trouble maintaining her intensity, especially as Ragnarok took yet another step towards her, she was almost in arm's length of the beast. She could her him growling, which punctuated with another roar, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" She could feel her resolve crumbling inside her and the beam began shrinking in width.

While no one may ever be able to truly know what Ragnarok saw and thought when he looked at that battle, the monster could see Raven weakening as well as her teammates. With a mighty roar he charged, each step like the sound of thunder at Raven. Unable to keep up her assault, Raven dropped to her knees. She raised a shaking hand to put a tall dark shield between her and Ragnarok. The beast shattered it with a back fist and raised his right fist high over his head to crush Raven.

At that moment, Ragnarok's hand was deterred by a streaking young alien girl descending from high altitude from which she had risen to gain velocity, "Leave Raven alone!" yelled Starfire, her eyes glowing a deepest green. Extending her arms outward with fists in place, she rapidly rammed into the side of Ragnarok's head, catching the beast completely off-guard. Ragnarok attack was cut off and the beast went rolling into a crashing building that he had earlier lit on fire. "And stay away from my friends!" called Starfire, ending with a girlish huff.

"Raven, are you all right?" called Cyborg, running through the rubble to her side. Robin and Beast Boy were right behind him.

"I think so," she said, staggering to her feet, "that took a lot out of me. I thought I was a goner there, thank Starfire."

"You are welcome, Friend Raven," said the hovering princess. "I am just glad you were not made the 'smooshed pancake.'"

"Do you think we hurt him?" asked Beast Boy, staring at the pillar of burning fire. He was answered by a mighty roar from the blaze, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" Powerful heat beams came out of the collapsing office tower, charring another building on a previously untouched block.

"I'm guessing not," said Robin, with a grimace. "I'm open to suggestions."

"He's like a tank," said Cyborg.

"Yeah, a fast, deadly, destructive, monstrous tank that can fly, has incredible strength, heat-beam vision, and that's totally invincible!" called Beast Boy, waiving his arms in the air, "Why can't he be more like a moped? Mopeds are fun!"

"I could appreciate a raging moped right now," said Raven, rubbing her temples again.

The pile of flame exploded as Ragnarok flew upwards out of the collapsing building (which did, in fact, collapse into a burning heap that very moment). "RAGE! RAGE! I…RAGE!" yelled the monster.

"Big surprise…he's angry," moaned Cyborg.

"Star did just push him into a burning building," said Beast Boy, "I might be that cranky if that happened."

"You're that cranky when your alarm clock goes off every morning," deadpanned Raven as she rubbed her bruises.

"Get ready!" yelled Robin.

Ragnarok looked down at the Titans from his position, hovering above the landscape. He roared and rocketed downwards at them, straight at the still-floating Starfire. Starfire gave a loud, "Eep!" and flew to the side avoiding Ragnarok's mighty grasp. She rocketed upwards, soaring straight up into the sky. Ragnarok took one glance upward and yelled, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" Extending his open grasp upward in the direction of the darting Starfire, he flew towards the low-lying clouds after her.

"They've gone up into the air!" said Robin. The Titan's leader looked around, the streets nearby were no longer recognizable, punctuated by craters, flames, smoke, and rubble. He could hear fire engines in the distance, too few sirens for the number of blazes. Cyborg was looking upwards trying to see. "They're up there," said Cyborg pointing eastward. "After them, Beast Boy!" yelled Robin!

"I'm on it," said Beast Boy. He morphed into an eagle and took off in the direction that Cyborg had pointed.

Raven moaned and leaned against Cyborg's arm. "I'm going to need a minute," she said.

Robin gazed upward toward the clouds. "I hope they'll be all right up there." He grimaced as he saw some the clouds punctuated with red glows. "Because it looks like Ragnarok could light the skies afire."

_To be continued… _

_Did you enjoy round one of the Titans' assault against Ragnarok? This is only part one of a three chapter update! Originally, chapters 12-14 were meant to be read together, but length has driven me to a multi-update again. So, move on to Chapter 13 as the battle moves to the aerial skies above Jump City and Ragnarok and Beast Boy collide with the Raging Ragnarok! And where is Strata?_


	13. Watch for Falling Whales

_Greetings, loyal readers! I hope you all are enjoying my 3-chapter update for this story. I hope you all are liking the personal replies that I send back. I would again like to thank this moment the C2 Community "The Real OC" and their manager Chaos Tears for the exposure. This is the middle section of a 3-chapter update so if you have been a regular follower through my last update of chapter 11, you will need to go back one chapter to chapter 12 to continue unimpeded._

_Continuing without any delay, we rejoin the battle between the Titans and the Raging Ragnarok as the skirmish moves to the air high above Jump City as Starfire is engaging the monster with Beast Boy somewhere nearby searching for her, and Raven recuperating on the ground with Cyborg and Robin._

The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast

Chapter 13: Watch for Falling Whales

High above the city Starfire was darting among the clouds trying to hide from her extremely irate pursuer. She had flown up here to get Ragnarok away from her friends and the city but was not sure what to do with the beast now that he was up here with her. They had been darting among the clouds; Starfire at first learning how fast Ragnarok was, which was alarmingly quick. On the ground, Ragnarok had seemed deliberate in all his destruction, taking his time. But when his target moved quickly, he could apparently match her move for move. At first, they had darted from cloud to cloud, with the monster roaring firing his heat beams from his eye-like flames into clouds, steaming the sky. But after a turn around a very convenient alto-cumulus, Starfire had lost him and he was now hovering above the city very quietly while she watched with her head just visible from a cloudy covering.

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" roared the beast at no one in particular. Starfire noted that he did not seem to need anyone present to make his inquiry. Seemingly not liking what was happening, Ragnarok growled, scaring off a passing flock of geese. He then looked downward over the city that he had flown over. He, like Starfire, could see the city, including the small eastern section that was blazing from the fires he had started.

Ragnarok looked downward at the city and to Starfire's great alarm, launched another wave of heat beams and seared three buildings nowhere near his original battle scene, one of them being the very JumpMart that she and Strata had saved not the previous morning from Punk Rokcet. Ragnarok fired another beam and another street was punctuated by a raging fire.

Robin looked up into the sky and saw beams raining down on other parts of the city, "This is not good. I wonder if Beast Boy has found them yet."

Raven looked up, "I have to go help."

Cyborg grabbed her by the arm, "Careful Rae, you don't look very recovered to me."

Raven phased her arm out of Cyborg's grasp, "My friends need me. Besides, Strata said I was the only hope there was."

"So, you're believing him now?" said Cyborg, "because I also remember him saying that you were a fool's hope at best." Another building was smitten by Ragnarok's heat vision four blocks away.

"A fool's hope may be all we have left," muttered Raven. She focused her thoughts and wobbily floated into the air towards the source of the beams.

"Think she'll be all right, Robin?" said Cyborg.

"Think any of us will be all right, Cyborg? I've learned to never give up hope. And if there's one thing I've learned about Raven, it's that she has an inner strength I may never understand. Her very existence here is reason enough to believe in any fool's hope."

Cyborg was silent for a moment, before speaking, "That's makes me wonder about something."

"What's that?"

"I wonder if Strata saw that strength too."

Robin smiled for a moment, "I don't know. That's something we can't answer now, like most of the mysteries about Strata."

"Where do you think he is? The HIVE 5 said he was nearby. Do you think he got away or worse?"

"I don't know that either. We have bigger things to worry about then the Severing Strata right now; I'm worrying about what's going on in the sky. We can't do anything from down here."

Cyborg thought for a second, "I have an idea about that. Help me turn the T-Car back over."

Starfire knew that she could not allow Ragnarok to attack the city from above any more. She aimed her vision and fired her own eye-beams of energy at Raganrok. They green bolts exploded on Ragnarok's head and he turned to face Starfire, unharmed. Charging at him again, Starfire collided into Ragnarok's torso like a bullet, sending the monster somersaulting through the sky.

Undaunted the beast, extended his arms and stopped his sailing and came to a stop. Then with a roar he flew right at Starfire, stopping just before her to throw a punch with his huge right fist. Able to see this coming, the veteran Tamaranian dodged to the left and then floated back some as Ragnarok came with an uppercut from his left. Starfire charged at his right foot and grabbed his metallic boot-like foot and spun the beast (who had no weight in the air) a full circle before throwing him through the air again. Starfire unleashed a flurry of starbolts at Ragnarok.

Ragnarok stopped in mid-air again as the energy detonated harmlessly on his chest. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" he yelled.

"I do not know who your enemy is, perhaps you might explain, please?" queried Starfire, "And please stop blowing everything up and trying to hurt me."

Unmoved by anything Starfire could possibly say however polite she was, Ragnarok used his full speed and bore down upon Starfire. He leveled a mighty fist right at her. Starfire dodged the brunt of it, but the force of Ragnarok's furious punch just grazed her and Starfire was sent hurdling to the side by the blow. Ragnarok wasted no time in chasing her and before Starfire could react, appeared behind her and kicked the princess with his left foot.

"Oomph," said Starfire, feeling very bruised as Ragnarok's huge boot connected with her back, "That felt like a Tamaranian acupuncture treatment for the measles." Her pain turned to alarm as Ragnarok raced upon her again and grabbed her in his metal fist.

"I am sorry to disappoint you but I am stronger than I look," said Starfire as she rallied her strength to loosen his grip. Pushing with all her might she found the colossus' grip unshaken by her efforts, "Umm…" said Starfire, "It also appears that you are much stronger than you look…umm…err…hello?" Ragnarok growled as Starfire fired eye-beams his face. Neither the beast nor his mighty grip flinched. Starfire was a bit worried, "Hi! My name is Starfire, do you want to be friends?" Ragnarok growled again. "Umm…" said Starfire again, clearly out of options, "Help!" she yelled.

At that moment aided by Starfire's yell as a means of locating her, a large green pterodactyl descended from the sky and landed on top of the Raging Ragnarok. Giving a mighty cry, Beast Boy in his flying dinosaur form clawed at Ragnarok's back and helmet with the talons on his feet. He gave a high-pitched cry and drove his bony head into Ragnarok's.

The Raging Ragnarok shook himself violently and loosed himself from Beast Boy's grip. Turning her around, he hurled Starfire as a projectile directly at the flying reptile. Connecting, the two Titans were hurled backwards through the air. Starfire responded by charging at Ragnarok again, "You are not a nice monster." Ragnarok raised his left forearm and caught the brunt of her assault on it and was not moved very much at all. Starfire dived out of the way, avoiding a downward punch from Ragnarok's right hand.

Ragnarok was then sent hurdling downwards as a large green whale, the morphing Beast Boy, appeared in the sky and crashed into Ragnarok's head. The duo descended some 500 feet, Ragnarok being stuck under the mighty green whale before the monster righted himself and stopped his descent and lifted the whale above his head with both arms. Throwing the whale soccer style, the behemoth hurled Beast Boy, a.k.a. "The Green Moby Dick" as the local papers would call him the next day, right at Starfire.

Starfire was a special enough fighter, however, that large whales hurdling towards her in the sky did not bother her at all. Instead, she hurdled herself at the whale and knocked it back downwards at Ragnarok, much to Beast Boy's regret and back pain for the next two days.

Ragnarok was knocked down some again but caught Beast Boy by the tail and spinning the whale above his head with one arm (truly, no whale has ever made as much noise as that stunned green one did at that moment) through the whale back at Starfire. Beast Boy, this time, had had enough of being a large mammalian ping-pong ball, and morphed into a hawk and sailed to the side with a little glare at Starfire, which she never noticed.

The monster roared, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY? WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" Starfire could not help but wonder how she and Beast Boy were not enough and if Ragnarok was having the same problems with siblings that she did. Her thoughts were broken up by Ragnarok who launched a new flurry of heat beams from his flaming eyes in the center of the black slit in his helmet. "Look out!" yelled Starfire, and she and Beast Boy flew in circles to try to confuse the beast.

How long they could have dodged; it will never be known as Raganrok was sent flying upwards by a black beam. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" chanted Raven, who came wobbily floating up from the ground, having finally caught up with her teammates. "Take this!" called the dark girl as she pushed Ragnarok back further with another beam. She hovered in mid-air, clearly exausted.

"Friend Raven, should you be up here?" said Starfire. Beast Boy the hawk screeched in agreement.

"I'm not giving up, Starfire," said Raven. "Look out!"

Ragnarok descended from the sky at Beast Boy. He would have flattened the green hawk, but Raven put up a shield. Ragnarok's foot crashed through it easily, dispelling the dark energy, but it gave Beast Boy enough time to slip away. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" yelled Raven and she pushed another dark beam against the monster. Ragnarok stood his ground and tried to fly into it like before. His eyes flickered as he prepared to incinerate Raven with his eye-beams. He fired into the dark matter and the dark beam was shortened as Ragnarok's heat energy pushed against the weakened Raven's power. Flames danced where their beams met and the inferno was moving closer towards Raven. "I can't hold it," cried Raven.

"Raven!" yelled Starfire. Beast Boy morphed into a parrot, "Awk! Get out of there! Squawk!"

It was just then that providence (or more specifically, Cyborg) intervened once more. From the ground, a huge sonic cannon blast collided into Ragnarok. The beast was sent hurdling upwards above the three aerial Titans.

* * *

"Fire two!" yelled Cyborg from the ground, on top of the T-Car. The trunk of the T-Car had been opened and a large platform had extended out from under it. Mounted on the back of the T-Car was a large artillery-style sonic cannon, similar to the one on Cyborg's own arm. "I knew adding this thing would come in handy one day when we needed some raw power." Cyborg was on the platform on the back of the T-Car. Robin was at the wheel.

"Cyborg, what do you see?" asked Robin. The metallic Titan scanned the air with his infared vision.

"Direct hit, with the first and second blast. I can see Ragnarok well; he gives off a strong heat signature. Here he comes! Get ready to drive!"

Robin activated his communicator, "Robin, calling Starfire, how is everyone?"

Starfire responded, "We are all ok…mostly," she rubbed her aching back and ribs, "What is happening; the Ragnarok just flew back down."

"Cyborg and I have an idea to get him out of the city. We're driving towards the bridge; stay out of his path."

Ragnarok descended from the sky, racing towards the T-Car in a low flight just behind it. Robin pressed the accelerator and the T-Car raced forwards with Ragnarok chasing them, heading west. The T-Car bounced through the rubble. "I need more time to clear this, and it looks like he's gaining!" shouted Robin.

"Okay, here we go! Take this!" shouted Cyborg. The sonic artillery cannon from the car launched a third shot and connected with Ragnarok, sending the beast crashing into the ground. "Booyah!" yelled Cyborg, "direct hit!"

Ragnarok was not down long as he came up angry and flew just off the ground, charging the racing T-Car. "Need some more?" said Cyborg, "Take this!" The back bumper on the T-Car lowered revealing an array of small missiles, similar to the ones on Cyborg's own armor. They launched and connected with the monster in mid-air. Ragnarok stopped and hovered to brush away the smoke, and Cyborg fired a fourth short from the artillery cannon. Ragnarok rumbled to the ground from the explosion. "Got him!"

"We've hit open road; the bridge is not far," called Robin from the driver's seat, "keep him coming!"

The T-Car was speeding away as Ragnarok regained his stance. He roared loudly, "RAGE! RAGE! RAGE!" Accelerating into flight again, he chased after the T-car as it rounded a corner. Ragnarok's flaming eyes burned against the surrounding purple metal armor and he launched a new wave of heat beams at the T-Car.

Robin swerved right as a patch of rode burst into flames beside the T-Car. A building ahead them was charred as well. The T-Car shuddered as Cyborg unleashed another short of the T-Car's cannon. Ragnarok was driven backwards. "We're approaching the bridge!" yelled Robin.

The T-Car raced onto the bridge leading out of the city with Ragnarok in pursuit. Cyborg unleashed a volley from the cannon, and Ragnarok crashed into the asphalt once more. The T-Car raced over the suspension bridge and stopped when across it. Ragnarok regained his feet, and the behemoth stood up in the center of the long Jump City bridge.

"He's not following," said Robin, "do you think we've hurt him?"

"I'm not sure," said Cyborg, "He has not tried to block at all, but we are the fastest moving target he's had all night."

"He just stopped," said Robin, "He's in the middle of the bridge just looking at us."

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" Ragnarok roared at the setting moon; dawn was approaching.

"Shoot him again!" yelled Robin. Cyborg fired another beam from the sonic artillery cannon.

Ragnarok glanced at the two heroes and fired a shot of his heat beams right at the artillery blast. The explosion of the two beams detonated in mid-air between them, harmlessly. Ragnarok then raised his right arm into the air. Suddenly, purple energy began forming in his hand and slowly extending a few feet outwards from his grasp. "RAGE!" roared the beast. "I…RAGING RAGNAROK!"

"What is he doing?" asked Robin.

"Robin, I have a very bad feeling about this," said Cyborg, "He did something like this the last time he was here."

"The sword!" said Robin, remembering his crime files, "This could be bad."

The energy focused and pulsed in Ragnarok's arm. The purple energy formed into Ragnarok's mighty blade which he had pounded the Titans with on his first appearance. The slightly curved blade was sharp on its front edge while the back was laced with the same purple armor and crimson trim that Ragnarok wore on his armor. Ragnarok raised the blade up and pointed at the T-Car. He raised his empty left hand and extended his index finger and wiggled it at the two heroes as if motioning them to come closer.

"Is he calling us out?" said Robin.

"Bad idea, very bad idea," said Cyborg, "The guy just materialized a giant sword, has been kicking our butts all night, and now wants us to come closer? Let's not Robin, no shame in it, it's just you and me here."

Ragnarok raised his sword and cut a horizontal slice through the air. Where Ragnarok sliced, a huge energy wave appeared that raced forwards and crumbled the far western side of the bridge and sent the T-Car rolling. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" roared the behemoth.

"Robin, you ok?" called Cyborg, who was lying in a grassy area after being thrown off the platform.

"I'm fine, Cyborg," said Robin, crawling out the front window of the turned-over T-Car.

"I think the artillery cannon is crushed though," said Cyborg, "The car looks ok."

Ragnarok soared into the air and cut three horizontal slices above the bridge. The energy waves crashed into the center of the large bridge and to Robin and Cyborg's amazement the bridge crumbled, supports and all from the mighty waves of energy that Ragnarok sent raining down upon it. In a huge series of splashes, dust, cracking asphalt, and breaking cables the entire Jump City bridge fell into the river, severing the two heroes and rendering them speechless for several moments.

"He just blew up the entire bridge with a few swings!" said Cyborg.

"Worse, we're cut off from the city," said Robin, "I can't grapple hook us enough even close to get us to the city side. We'll have to drive the T-Car around the city and come in from the northern highway. And Ragnarok is flying back towards the city!"

Robin was right. After severing the bridge and crashing it into the deep water, the monster roared and flew at a high speed back towards the city. Cyborg and Robin were left to look on helpless.

"I thought we had a great plan too," said Cyborg.

"What bothers me is that he stopped following us right about as we had him outside the city. Cyborg, this really strikes me harder than anything. Did you see the way he gestured at us. It was like he suddenly knew what we were trying to do. This could be scary, but Ragnarok may have some intelligence—how much I do not know. Clearly, he's no genius; with his power he could have crushed us many times tonight had he acted somewhat more logically. He is easily distracted."

"Are you saying we have an attention-deficit monster on our hands?"

"I'm saying that we may have seriously underestimated our opponent. That rage of his may give him more qualities than we like to admit. See how he struck the bridge and flew back towards the city. He's drawn to destroying things."

Cyborg sighed, "Strata did say the rage was to cover the sorrow. So, the point may not have been to follow us to nowhere…"

"Yes," said Robin, "He may have only been interested in taking us on as part of his destructive force as long as we were part of causing maximum damage. Had he fought us outside the city, it could have lost appeal to him. Of course, I'm guessing somewhat."

"And now we're outside the city, and he's still very much in it,' said Cyborg.

"I'm calling Starfire," said Robin, "for now, it's up to them."

_To be continued…_

_On the verge of victory, Cyborg and Robin have their plans upended by Ragnarok who is displaying more power than ever. Meanwhile, their quarry speeds back towards the city towards the aerial trio, the most injured of the group. Can Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy repel Ragnarok without the aid of Robin and Cyborg? And where is Strata and what can the Titans possibly do to stop Ragnarok? Both questions loom in Chapter 14; the third section of this 3-chapter update. Move towards it without delay!_


	14. Fool's Hope

_This is the third section of a three chapter update. Regular readers following from update to update should begin at chapter 12 before moving here. Trust me; there's some nice sequences in there with some humor thrown in. There might even be a secret recipe for Starfire's waffles! (Ok, there isn't; I can't be the cause of food poisoning all my readers.) So without further delay, we continue our story as Ragnarok has cut off Robin and Cyborg and races back toward the city towards a weakened trio of Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy…_

The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast

Chapter 14: Fool's Hope

Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven had descended from the sky and landed on the ground in the midst from where the T-Car had first driven away some time ago. They had been a little shaky, Raven in particular who had ended up needing to be helped down from the sky by Starfire some. Beast Boy had just begun a tirade on how people should have more respect for whales in mid-air when Robin's call came in. Alarmed by the news that Robin and Cyborg's plan to lead Ragnarok out of the city had failed, the trio was even more alarmed when the behemoth raced into view where they were and landed some twenty yards from them.

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" roared the monstrosity. Ragnarok sliced the air with his sword and the resulting shock wave threw the Titan trio backwards and into various piles of dirt. Ragnarok leaped in the air and dropped with both feet on the ground with a huge thud, sending shock waves all around him, toppling some already weakened real estate. The trio was rolled about on the ground by the mini-earthquake.

It was Raven who forced herself to her feet first, an act that took most of her remaining strength. "Who do you want?" she called out at Raganrok.

Ragnarok yelled again, "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?"

Raven limped towards Ragnarok, "Why do you this?" she cried out to her enemy.

"Raven, no!" yelled Beast Boy, "Flee!"

Raven, perhaps too exhausted, frustrated, or tired to listen to rare words of wisdom from Beast Boy, raised her hand and focused her powers. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she said. Dark energy appeared around Ragnarok's helmet and Raven used that energy to slap Ragnarok in the face. The beast's head turned with her strike. Raven slapped his head back in the other direction. Ragnarok's head was turned in that direction. Totally spent, Raven fell again to her knees.

"Friend Raven!" yelled Starfire. The Tamaranian charged at Raven to grab her, but Raganrok reached down with his left hand and batted Starfire away. The young princess was sent sprawling onto the street.

Ragnarok reached down and picked up Raven with his left hand, dangling her by her cape. He fired a shot of heat beams in front of Beast Boy, discouraging the suddenly turned green rhinoceros from charging. He lifted Raven's head up to eye-level with his own. With his right hand, Ragnarok raised its sword holding its point dangerously close to the dark Titan. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" roared the beast.

"Am I your enemy Ragnarok?" asked Raven in more of a whisper than a real, energy-filled voice. "Am I your enemy? If so, then just finish it now. If I'm not, then what are you doing?"

"I…RAGE."

"Yes, believe me; I can feel it. Your rage bombards my senses but I feel your sorrow too. It's growing now. You're in pain. Why are you crying inside, Ragnarok?"

"I RAGE!"

"No, it's not that. You hide the pain with that; I can feel it. Who hurt you? Has someone hurt you? Has Strata hurt you? Is the Severing Strata your enemy?"

"I…SORROW."

"Yes, I know you do."

"YOU…KNOW?" The Titans were surprised; Ragnarok's seemingly unbreakable mantras were deviating.

"Someone I know said that you were a prisoner. Is that true? Have you been in a war Ragnarok?"

"I…RAGE…I…AM WAR."

"We've met Ragnarok. Do you remember me?"

"RAVEN AZARATH."

"You do remember. Do you still want me to help you?"

"RAVEN AZARATH…HELP RAGNAROK…HELP RAGNAROK, RAVEN AZARATH," the monster's voice was hollow, but no longer bitter.

"When you rage, you destroy. What do you do when you sorrow?"

"I DON'T KNOW. WHEN SORROW, I SLEEP."

"Who is the Severing Strata?"

"WHERE IS MY ENEMY?" the anger had returned to Ragnarok's voice.

"Is Strata your enemy Ragnarok?"

"ENEMY?"

Raven grew stern for a moment, "Listen to me Ragnarok. I need to know how a person named the Severing Strata knows you. Is he your jailer?"

Ragnarok turned his head and looked up at the moon. A moan seemed to come from somewhere within him.

"WHO IS THE SEVERING STRATA?"

This stunned the trio. Strata had predicted the coming of Ragnarok, how he would attacks, and had seemingly been linked in some way to Ragnarok's appearance and now the beast claimed to not know the stranger?

Raven focused, "How can you not know the Severing Strata. He says he knows you well. He knew you were coming."

Ragnarok looked at wreckage, "I RAGE…I WAR…I DID THIS?"

Raven sighed, "Yes, Ragnarok, you did this."

Ragnarok lowered his sword, he put Raven on the ground gently, and he stared up at the sky. "WHERE IS MY ENEMY? WHERE IS MY END? WHERE IS MY WAR?"

"Who is your enemy?" said Raven, "Tell me!"

"IT IS NOT YOU RAVEN AZARATH. I DID ALL OF THIS?" Ragnarok pointed at the city.

"Yes, you did this."

"HELP RAGNAROK…RAVEN AZARATH…"

"How can I help you?"

"IT MUST NOT BE LIKE THIS!"

"What can I do?"

"NOTHING. NOTHING, RAVEN AZARATH. NOTHING TO DO; NOTHING TO BE DONE. I…RAGE…I…SORROW."

"Is there no hope?"

"THERE IS NEVER ANY HOPE."

With that Ragnarok focused on his sword and it vanished in flash of purple light, the monster gazed towards the heavens and rose into the sky. Then, quickly as can be, Ragnarok sailed into the clouds, headed west and disappeared in the sky.

Starfire walked towards the hunched over Raven, "Did he hurt you, Raven?"

"Not then Starfire. How could he not know who Strata was? I sensed the sorrow in him suddenly grew when I mentioned his grief and war. There are still too many mysteries here, and the east side of the city is in ruins."

Beast Boy approached. "Ragnarok was wrong about one thing though, Raven."

Raven feared a bad pun coming on, "Ok, Beast Boy, what is it?"

Beast Boy smiled, "He said there wasn't any hope. But he was wrong. That's twice now he should have killed us all, but you stopped him…somehow. That's a lot of hope for me, and that's way more than fool's hope…unless of course you count that it's me who's hoping!" Beast Boy chuckled, "I think Strata was right that you're filled with hope, Raven."

"Thanks, Beast Boy." Raven gave Starfire and Beast Boy a hug.

Starfire spoke next, "Come friends; we must find Robin and Cyborg."

* * *

After sometime of searching and meeting up with Robin and Cyborg on the other side of the town, the Titans returned to the Tower in the still drivable (a minor miracle at that) T-Car.

"So, he just flew off?" said Robin as they were all in the car.

"Yes, Friend Raven, had a talk with the scary Ragnarok and then he left like before," said Starfire.

"And he didn't know who Strata was?" queried Cyborg.

"No," said Raven, "There are a few things not right about that. Strata is clearly connected with the beast but how…"

"Perhaps Ragnarok is lying," said Beast Boy.

"Why would he do that?" asked Cyborg.

"I don't know," said Raven, "This mystery is only deepening, along with our bruises."

The T-Car pulled into the Titans' garage. "I have another mystery," said Cyborg.

"What's that Friend Cyborg?" asked Starfire.

"Why is there a huge hole in the side of the garage?" moaned Cyborg.

He was right. In the side of the Titans' garage was a large hole, about seven feet high and the garage door had been blasted open.

"Someone has stolen the T-Ship," said Cyborg. "They came in through that hole, and they used the T-Ship's blasters to blow away the door."

"This was not here when we left, and the battle was nowhere near the Tower," said Robin, "While we were fighting Ragnarok, someone stole the T-Ship."

"Who would do such a thing?" asked Starfire.

"The HIVE 5?" submitted Beast Boy?

"Maybe," said Robin, "But I doubt they'd have the guts to after being thrashed by Ragnarok…"

"Strata," said Raven with a very tired sigh, "When he left he was mumbling that we should take the T-Ship and flee the planet. He was surprised when he first saw it in the hangar following the battle with Punk Rocket right before he passed out. Only he knew that Ragnarok was coming, and he disappeared from where the HIVE 5 said he had been right about the time Ragnarok came. Strata has taken the T-Ship and likely fled the planet."

"Are you…" began Starfire.

"I'm sure Starfire," said Raven.

"Then," said Robin, "Ragnarok has flown away again, our only contact to the mystery is gone and probably stolen our T-Ship. What do we do?"

"Strata must be found," said Raven. . .

"I have questions for that stranger."

_To be continued…_

_That's the end of this 3-chapter update. I did not know my fingers could be this tired. These updates range over 7,000 words and push this story well over the 40,000 word mark, and there's more story to come! Did Strata really steal the T-Ship? What were his reasons behind that? Why did Ragnarok not recognize Strata? Where is Strata and all his accompanying mysteries anyway? Why is Ragnarok so angry and so sorrowful? Chapter 15 people! Please consider an update to this set of chapters—that's more than 7,000 words—show me some love/hate here! _


	15. At Least We're Already Wet

_Hello again, it is good to be back with a new chapter. I again thank all my reviewers, and I hope that you all enjoy the replies I send. Writing this story and interacting with all of you has been a joy to me this past several months. To my new readers for whom this is your first taste of this story, I am thrilled to have you join this tale. For timing purposes with the series now completed (boo!), this story takes place between seasons 4 and 5 (after Trigon, before BoE, mainly because I need Jinx to still be evil as she still was when I started this tale)._

_As several of you may remember, I dislike long introductions; however, I am going to step back from the story for a moment like I did in Chapter 6 and give a quick summary here in Chapter 15 of what has been happening so far, particularly for new readers. This does not mean that anyone should no go back and read the previous chapters for in doing so one would miss a great deal, and I am only going to cover the finest surface with this summary of the characters:_

_The Raging Ragnarok: "The Mighty Beast" is the mysterious hulking entity that has now twice struck Jump City, some years apart from each strike with mysterious malice. Ragnarok always seems to be yelling for some unknown enemy and strikes down all that attempt to oppose his rage. Consumed by an unexplainable rage, which masks a deeper and even more mysterious sorrow, the behemoth is 20 feet tall and clad in dark purple armor with red trim. In his spherical helmet is the only opening: two eye-like dots of flame on a slit of blackness. Powers include phenomenal strength, flight, heat-beam vision, and the ability to form a giant sword that sends out massive shockwaves. The full degree of Ragnarok's intelligence is unknown as is his past. Most recently destroyed large sections of the east side of Jump City in Chapters 12-14. _

_Ragnarok has twice fled the city after conversations with Raven in which his rage breaks down and the sorrow emerges. Reasons for this are unknown. What else is "known" about Ragnarok is anecdotal from Strata, who may not be the most truthful source. Strata claims to be Ragnarok's jailer and is able to "sense" Ragnarok's second appearance years after the first. Strata claims Ragnarok was one of three survivors of a war that destroyed Strata's home but that Ragnarok was on neither side of the war. This is perplexing because in his last encounter with Ravem; Ragnarok did not recognize Strata's name._

_The Severing Strata: This enigmatic, red-haired young man appeared in town after helping the Titans battle the HIVE 5 and helping Starfire battle Punk Rocket. Strata is gifted with powers that allow him to form simple objects using an internal blue energy (weapons, tools, miscellaneous objects). The objects are only solid in his hands and disappear when his breaks contact or is forced to let go. The objects are not indestructible—both Jinx and Punk Rocket have created forces powerful enough to break them. Strata cannot create objects much larger than himself, nor can he make complex machines. Strata can "fire" objects from his palm but only when they are tethered to his hand by a cord, string, or chain that he forms. He wears a black jacket with black pants and a red T-shirt. On his metal belt, he carries a small metal box magnetized to his belt which contains three objects—only of which has been identified—a photograph of Strata and a young girl who he says is his dead sister Alisha. He wandered into town with a green backpack._

_Strata is very close-lipped about his past and has avoided giving details and is surrounded by his unconfirmed rumors. He claims to be the last surviving member of his homeland (location unknown) where he fought in a war against an evil tyrant—a war tha the says ended in a stalemate. Strata claimed to Raven to have failed his last mission in that war. Strata claims to be Ragnarok's "jailer", a statement he has not elaborated on except that no one else could do it. He claims that he can track Ragnarok's power and when his anger peaks, that his jail cannot contain him._

_The reasons Strata came to the Titans is somewhat vague. Strata has claimed to have no purpose for coming to the city, yet he has told Raven that he was coming to see her because she was his "hope" against Ragnarok as she had survived an encounter with him once before. He said that this was "a fool's hope", with little chance of succeeding. Strata has been missing for some time since suddenly leaving the Titans hours before Ragnarok returned. He was last confirmed collapsing in an alley after a second battle with the HIVE 5 right before Ragnarok descended. He is the prime suspect in the theft of the T-Ship._

_Raven: The darkest Titan has twice made Ragnarok fly away by talking to him. She seems to be a key against him, but there are no available reasons for this. _

_HIVE 5: Juvenile criminals who have twice encountered Strata. Jinx, in particular, hates Strata. They were last seen fleeing Ragnarok._

_Punk Rocket: Criminal who used sound waves to fight. He was defeated by Starfire and Strata. _

_Alisha: Green-haired young girl in Strata's photograph who he says his deceased younger sister._

_Evil tyrant: Unnamed enemy who Strata claims was responsible for destroying his home and is the third claimed survivor of that war. This person has not made an appearance in the story at all, but I list him because Strata brings him up a few times. Or, as I posted earlier: "He's evil. He's tyrannical. Strata claims he exists. We don't know where he is, or if he is. Really not sure why I even listed him." _

_So, we continue on with the story as the Titans have returned to the Tower after surviving their second battle with Ragnarok. Large parts of the city are still on fire, the bridge is demolished, and the T-ship has been stolen from the hangar with Strata as main suspect. The sun is rising…

* * *

_

"The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast"

Chapter 15: At Least We're Already Wet

All the Titans slept in late. Morning training sessions were cancelled by Robin, as no practice sessions on the rocks at the base of the Tower could equal the beating that the team had taken from Ragnarok hours earlier. Their dreams varied. Starfire dreamed about Robin and dancing and puppies and a Tamaranian dance called the "_kupquick_" which involved throwing the shorter partner high onto a balcony ledge and landing in gravy. It was good that Robin never found out about this dream lest he be in anymore pain then what Ragnarok inflicted on him hours earlier.

Cyborg's dreams were somewhat more of a paradox. Half of his dream was spent imagining beating Beast Boy at a round of Stankball, and the other half of his dream was occupied by binary code—sequences of ones and zeroes—which probably added up to the score of the Stankball game that he had been dreaming about. Beast Boy's dreams are somewhat too fragmented to describe, but a moped was involved in every segment.

Raven's dream as somewhat more troubling for the female Titan. Her dream was a nightmare, and she saw Azarath burning with her father standing over the ruins laughing. Flames scorched the sky, and she could see her mother Arella cowering as people fled the wrath of the demon lord. Suddenly, her vision changed and the flames were burning Jump City. The Titans' city was alit in mighty pillars of flame and burning sulphur. The Tower was charred skeleton. Her father was there, and the citizens of the city were statues. Then suddenly, the form of her father changed into a large purple-clad figure, the Raging Ragnarok. Screaming for his enemy, the mammoth figure burned another building with his eye-beams and pointed his enormous cutlass at Raven and roared so that the city shook. Raven felt a hand on her shoulder in her dream and turned to see Strata standing next to her. He extended his hand towards her and brushed a stray hair on her forehead back as he had done when they had talked for so long on the rooftop. "Don't worry, Raven," said Strata, "I'm sure a smart girl from Azarath like you could figure it out." Her vision was then obscured by flames, separating her from Strata as she saw the T-Ship fly away towards the starts. Her wanderings in the world of dreams then ended, and she awoke.

For the curious, Robin dreamed about Starfire, but he'd be angry if that was told.

Cyborg was the first to awake, needing the least amount of time for him to "recharge", about 11:00 that morning. Robin was the next awake. Both of them had a quick breakfast/lunch and proceeded to work repairing damage in the T-Ship hangar from the night before. Starfire was the next awake followed shortly by Raven while Beast Boy finally awoke. Beast Boy passed on his usual meal of non-dairy waffles as he discovered he had eaten his pillow in the form of a pit bull the night before.

"Good morning, Friend Beast Boy," said Starfire, totally ignorant of the fact it was practically noon, "Did you rest the good sleep?"

"Yeah, Star, I had this great dream about…err…can't quite remember…let's see…umm…anyway, there was this killer moped!"

"I am glad," said the princess, "Raven did you dream the good dream?"

"No mopeds here," said Raven, sipping herbal tea. "Just my usual wonderful nightmares."

"I am happy for you," said Starfire, completely missing Raven's entire message, "I danced the _kupquick_ all night long."

"The cupwhat?" asked Beast Boy, "How does that go?"

Starfire, too dangerously giddy to describe her "experience" with her dreamed Boy Wonder, was all too happy to explain. She grabbed Beast Boy by the arms and began spinning around the room with him flailing though the air, "It is a dance of great passion and GRAVY! It goes like this!" And with that, she threw Beast Boy into the air until the youngest Titans crashed into the ceiling and fell to the ground in the thud. "There was, however, no ceiling in my dream, and no one got hurt. I've noticed your Earth dances are very high on safety."

"Urrrrr…" was all the response Beast Boy could supply, the experience having reminded him of Ragnarok throwing him around as a whale the night before.

"Raven, would you like to try the _kupquik_?" asked Starfire.

"No thank you Starfire, I already have enough bruises after last night. Why don't you show it to Robin?" Raven paused for a moment having not until now realizing the damage this suggestion could cause, but now it was to late.

"Oh yes, Friend Raven, Robin did like the dance a lot in my…I mean, he might find it most enjoyable!" Starfire floated off to find Robin.

"Urrr…" groaned the green Titan from the floor, "What truck just hit me?"

"I believe that was the _kupquick_ delivery van; you ordered take out. Good news though, it was meat-free."

Beast Boy groaned, "I think I'll skip dessert. You up for Stankball?"

This time Raven groaned. "I need to meditate." She heard something hit the floor below her hard, "And Robin will need an aspirin," she added. With that, she levitated up through the ceiling.

* * *

For Raven, it was customary for her to meditate in her room. Therein, she was most able to avoid disruptions associated with living in the Tower such as Stankball, loud music, and Starfire's always all-encompassing hugs. However, today Raven levitated into her room and continued upwards through the ceiling until she was on the roof of the Tower. Today, she wanted to meditate upon the destruction of the city.

Raven gazed eastward into the city. She could still see smoldering pillars of smoke rising from the city's eastward age. The fire department would be very busy putting out Ragnarok's flames today. The smell of the city had changed. Everything smelled of smoke, and a sizeable part of the city was covered in ash and cinders. Flames still dotted a few features of the Jump City skyline. Many buildings had devolved into charred skeletons. The early afternoon sun was bright, and it was an insult to Raven's eyes for there was nothing out there that she wanted to see clearly.

The fires were too familiar to Raven. They reminded her of home before she had been sent here to Earth. Most of Azarath had burned during her father's tyrannical rule over her home city. Only shadows of the city's once magnificent pre-Trigon glory were visible and those who had survived her father were now too melancholic and despondent to care. As Raven stared towards the smoldering piles of buildings, she resolved not to let the same fate befall her new home. Jump City was bruised; that was clear, but most of it was still standing tall. It would survive, and lift would continue here. But what if…no, when…Ragnarok came back? How could they stop him when they still were not sure how they…no, she…had somehow stopped him before?

There was much for Raven to brood on. She steeled her senses and reclined into a low levitation and separated herself from her physical surroundings. She would need extensive time to ponder today. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she began to chant.

In her deep meditation, Raven lost her sense of time. She meditated for hours until the afternoon began to wane. As such, she mused on the south side of the Tower totally unaware that the T-Ship had landed on the roof of a building a few blocks north.

Out of the ship, stepped a figure clad in black pants, red T-shirt, and a black jacket. His red hair glistened with the sun, which was falling to the west. He wore metal belt to which a small metal box was attached to by a magnet on his right side. On his feet were black hiking boots. On his back, the stranger wore a large green backpack. The figure reached into the metal box and withdrew a small photograph, showing him laughing with a small green-haired girl on his back. "Alisha," he said, addressing the picture, "it looks like it's time for the Severing Strata to make a comeback." With that, he replaced the picture and gazed southward toward the Tower. "Time for a reunion with my hopeful moonbeam," smiled Strata.

The mysterious newcomer stepped away from the T-Ship and walked towards the edge of the roof on which he was perched. Extending his right arm upwards, a small bar of blue energy emitted upward out of his hand for a short length. Energy then emitted out of the tip of that blue extension in either direction. With an instinctive focus, Strata turned the upwards extension into a solid blue bar coming out of his palm. The top energy perpendicular to the bar then narrowed and formed two blades bolted loosely to the bar. Strata then manipulated the blades to spin rapidly, and the stranger rose off the rooftop by his own improvised personal helicopter rotor. When he had gained enough altitude to be taller than the Tower, Strata then began flying slowly towards the Tower, his helicopter blades rotating rapidly above his head. "Not a lot of speed like this," thought Strata, "but it is far less conspicuous than flying that ship back."

On the Titans' rooftop, Raven continued her meditations. She felt time and space become irrelevant in her surroundings. Slowly, she quieted her emotions inside of her and tried to bring her mind, body, and life into proper perspective. Something was nagging inside her though; there was a disturbance. Raven felt her concentration slipping; there was a problem with her tranquility. Her state was not yet totally serene. She felt something within…no, it was from outside her self bothering her. It was a noise…what was it? And why had the wind suddenly picked up? Was that not a helicopter? Raven opened her eyes in time to see Strata descending onto the Tower roof on the far side away from her. She stood up, her hood still being down, and walked with considerable force into the pavement towards the enigmatic stranger.

"Lost, Strata?" said Raven with a smile that doubled as a sneer, "Because I know you wouldn't dare show your face here again on purpose less than 24 hours after you walked out of here on me!"

"Ah, Raven, you're glad to see me back then? How wonderful! I am very glad too see you too—alive no less! That I was not suspecting! You did it! I am coming by to offer my deepest congrats on handling Ragnarok and…"

Strata was interrupted by a rather irate Azarathian maid, "Where is the T-Ship, thief? I'm sure you took it."

"The T-Ship?" Strata was knocked off his train of thought, "Let's see…let's see…oh yes, the flying orange thing in the garage! Now, I remember. But surely Raven, you don't think I would steal from you and then come right back to the scene of the crime would you?"

"Yes."

"Oh, ok," Strata seemed a but puzzled as if he had been expecting that to go differently, "In that case, it's on the roof of the tallest building three blocks north."

"So you did take it?"

"Ah…err…yes, yes, I did take it. Please note: I did bring it back. It was necessary."

"Necessary for you to flee until the danger was passed, hmm?"

"Now, now, don't go accusing me of such nasty tactics. Let's just say it was needed, and you weren't using it at the time."

"Why did you take it, Strata?" Raven glowered at the mystery teenager.

"Hmm…well, let's see…oh, yes…that's it!"

"Spill it!"

Strata paused for a moment looking thoughtful, "I'm not going to tell you."

Black energy danced around Rave's clinched right fence, "Oh, I think you are. Where's Ragnarok?"

"In an inquisitive mood are you, Raven? Planning to fight me?"

"Yes, I must admit that despite all my meditations up here; the happiest place I can think of right now is having my hands around your neck for deserting me at the door last night."

"I must admit I have had a nasty streak of making young women extremely angry with me lately. But, what shall we fight for?"

"When I beat you, you will tell me all you know."

"That will be a short conversation, Raven, but what happens when I win?"

"You will tell me all you know."

"No, no, I need some sort of incentive to bring out my best stuff. :Let's see…" Strata paused for a moment and stared at his toes in thought, "When I win, you have to say something nice about me."

"That'll be an even shorter conversation."

A crate covered in black energy flew up from behind Raven and headed straight for Strata. The teen ran straight towards the crate, and blue energy began to form in his right hand. The blue trickles of energy quickly formed a large sledgehammer which Strata swung at the crate, breaking it in mid-air. Strata ran at Raven and swung his hammer. Raven held up her hand and a black sheet of energy received the blow, and she stepped backward. Strata re-swung his hammer, and Raven blocked it with another layer of black energy. The hammer shrunk into another form of blue energy and reformed along Strata's forearm as a large rotating drill bit. Strata's left hand glowed as well, and his arm on that side became a blue drill bit as well. Strata launched a series of jabs at Raven with his spinning appendages, but Raven continues to block his every assault.

Strata laughed, "Going to call your friends for help?"

Raven was steaming, "No, you're mine!" She disappeared with a flash of black as Strata jabbed again. Connecting with nothing but air, the boy was confused for a moment until Raven rose from the ground behind him. She yelled and through her arm forward, and a stream of black energy darted from her hand sending Strata straight to the ground. The impact made him release his drills and they disappeared.

Strata rolled on the ground, dodging two dark energy enveloped crates that came crashing down from the sky. He darted towards his feet and charged Raven, with a newly formed blue piston enveloping his left arm. The piston lurched forward at Raven who dodged right. Strata had been waiting for that and formed a boxing glove on his right hand and tried to right hook Raven. The girl through up another black shield breaking his punch, then another to dodge a second piston volley. Strata then raised his boxing glove, and it fired at Raven like a projectile from Strata's fist, connected back to his hand by a thin cord of energy. The projectile glove slammed into Raven's right cheek, and the blue-robed Titan went flying backwards.

"That's my sucker punch," bragged Strata.

"Here's my sucker explosion," said Raven, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" The ground exploded under Strata's feet in a bevy of dark energy, and the wanderer was sent hurdling backwards. Both combatants looked at each other from their respective collapsed positions on the Tower rooftop.

Strata grinned, "You know the only reason you're mad at me is because I was right."

"What was that?" shouted Raven, bounding up to her feet.

"You heard me." Strata got up to his feet. "I was right about you, my little moon."

"Do you never stop? Where is Ragnarok?"

"Ah, you have to beat me, remember, for that piece of info? And I'm still smiling." Strata gave Raven a very wide toothy grin.

"You know what I like about Ragnarok more than you? At least the raging monster goes away when I talk to him, you just can't seem to quit. Time to end this!" Raven levitated several feet into the air. She held her arms outward, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A black beam of her dark energy fired out at Strata below.

Strata covered the beam, creating a large blue shield to receive the powerful force. The shield blocked the dark energy, though it showed a few cracks from the effort, and Strata has to step back to handle it. "If that's the best you got, Raven, I can feel that insincere complement on its way right now."

"Insufferable pest! I hope you enjoy defeat!" growled Raven.

"Knowing me, I just might," retorted Strata. "Why don't we be friends, and you come down here and give me a hug?"

"I don't give h…" Raven stopped mid-sentence before a mischievous grin appeared on her face. "You know, I have a hug for you right here! Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Whatever Strara thought might happen, he guessed that it probably would not be pleasant. He was very right as a large band of dark energy appeared around him and enveloped his torso. With a flick of her wrist, she raised Strata, bound by the energy into the air across from her. "Time to give up, Strata," said Raven.

Strata looked around the skyline, "That's a pretty sunset. Purple used to be by favorite color, until Ragnarok came—the purple armor, it doesn't work for me anymore. That purple and red sunset reminds me of home. Clouds coming in; looks like rain."

Raven just sighed, "I'm starting to think you're attention-deficit disordered, Strata. Have you not noticed that you're suspended in mid-air and in my powers?"

Strata glanced toward Raven and smiled, "Raven, do you like jewelry?"

Raven glared at him, "Sure, I'm covered in diamonds here; will you just give up so I can interrogate you and get some dinner?"

Strata paid little notice to Raven, "You see, back home, before everybody died in the war, I used to give the girls jewelry. I can make the nicest jewelry, Raven. The problem was that I can only afford my own jewelry that I made myself, and when you give a girl an ankle bracelet of friendship or love made out of blue energy, and it disappears the moment you move your hand away—you really lose the beneficial effect of jewelry. It turns out that my diamonds aren't forever—HA! Would you like an ankle bracelet of friendship, Raven?"

"No."

"Ooo…love, then?"

"No."

"That's tough because I worked really hard on that one that you're wearing."

Raven looked down and felt very silly. A faint cord of energy was running from one of Strata's hands and leading to Raven's feet. The cord was attached to a ring which as wrapped around Raven's ankles and binding her feet together. Raven realized that Strata had subtly and slowly created this during his rambling about the sun and jewelry while she was too preoccupied with him to notice the cord coming from his right hand from under her energy bindings.

Strata wiggled his fingers and ropes of energy shot out of the ankle binding and blue ropes wrapped themselves around Raven until she bound in a net of blue energy. This forced her hands to her sides, and she let go in surprise of her mental hold on Strata. The black energy vanished, and Strata landed on the tower's rooftop still holding his cord. He began recoiling the cord into his palm by retracting his own energy, and Raven was pulled out of the sky.

Strata began rotating his body while holding his clasped hands out while cluthcing the cord. He spun Raven, still wrapped in the net, around in circles like a moon orbiting a planet, with Raven being a very blue satellite. Raven yelped an uncharacteristic shriek as Strata released the cord, the net and her ankle binding disappeared and she was launched into a pile of wooden crates.

"You see, Raven," said Strata, walking towards the crates from under which Raven was buried. "You're just mad because I was right about you. You are special, and you are filled with hope deep down. I'd never desert you; I just had to go run some errands. Believe me; it's better that way. You are my hope, Raven, and I now see that I was very right to come here after you." There was no response from the pile of boxes. "Raven, I hope you're thinking up a good complement under there. For this, you better say something really good." There was no response, and darkness was setting in. "Hey, you down there?" Strata formed two blue swords in both his hands. "If you're going to pop up behind me, I'm ready this time."

The crates rustled and then went flying through the air in every direction as a black shadow emerged from the pile and towered over them and Strata. Clad in a dark blue cloak, the shadow was pitch blackness from which nothing could be seen. At the top of the shadow was the thing outline of Raven's mouth and four pointed eyes the color of fire. "So, you like to play rough do you Strata?" emitted the mouth, with a voice hollow and violent, "Why don't you come over here, and I'll see what presents I have for you." Two dark shadow-like tentacles came out from the dark void and wormed their way towards Strata.

Strata eyes were so big that it was remarkable that his head could contain them. He backed away with terror on his face. "So, Raven," he murmured in a very low voice, "I see that there is something dark and violent inside you." The tentacles shot toward him, and Strata raised his swords and severed them both. The remainders vanished in a puff of smoke, and the clouds boomed from impending thunder. "Raven, don't be like this! There are better things inside you! Don't let rage and hatred take you over!"

The shadow hissed from its raised position and the eyes narrowed, "What's the matter, Strata? Didn't you want to see me?" Two large shadow hands with claw-like fingers projected from the shadowy monster and came at Strata. Strata rolled out of the way, and he fired one of his swords at the extensions. Attached to his hand by a chain, the sword cut through both extensions, and the hands disappeared.

"I see our projections have a similar weakness. Try this!" Strata launched the other sword at the shadowy void, tethered to his hand by a chain. The shadowy figured laugh and the sword vaporized on contact with the void.

"You do not have the power to fight me, stranger," remarked the voice from inside. It echoed though there was no surface to echo from.

"Maybe not, but I do have the machine!" called Strata. He reached into his small metal box on his belt, and he took out his second object—a small gray square with strange markings on the back that resembled a PDA—the only recognizable one a bright purple "Z" in the center along with a small antenna on the side of the device. On the side Strata was holding was an array of buttons and a very small display screen. Strata hit a few keys on this device. The shadow launched two more tentacles, but Strata paused long enough to chop them down with a tethered boomerang.

As Strata hit his final buttons on the object, a whooshing noise was heard as a large black object came rising up from the sky behind him until it was eye-level with the shadowy monster. It was a solid black triangle, though the back line was in a zigzag pattern, with no visible markings or openings except a few vents from which it could apparently use to hover and fly. The was about thirty feet wide and twenty feet long and ten feet in height. Strata punched a button on his gray device and two powerful pink energy beams fired from small openings on the forward point of the hovering triangle (isosceles). The beams crashed into the shadow and sent the beast toppling towards the ground. Strata pressed a few buttons, and the triangle landed on top of the tower.

Strata ran toward the collapsed blue figure, "Raven," he said, turning her on her back his hands so he could see her face, "Are you there?"

The blue-clad Titan emitted a slow moan, "Strata…you stopped the rage."

"Are you okay?"

Raven looked up again, "Thanks to you; you're a good shot."

"Thanks, I'll take that as my victory complement."

"What is that thing?"

Strata looked toward the triangle, which was about the size of the T-Ship, "That, my dear Raven, is my spaceship. It's my personal fighter from the war back home. I can remote control it with this," he showed her the gray device before putting it back in his metal box. Raven groaned again.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'll be fine; I can heal myself tonight, thanks to you. It's funny; you've saved Cyborg and Starfire, and I still want to pummel you."

"I'll just write that off as lingering inner-shadow monster…those eyes."

"The products of bad parenting…"

"…Your father…"

"Yes, help me up."

Strata helped Raven up to her feet. The rain began to fall. Raven spoke next, "This may help put out all the fires."

"You know I didn't want those, Raven. I would have done anything to stop them. I came here to bet on you; that you could be a key to stopping them. I was right. If not for your presence, this whole city would be in flames along with more cities right now."

"How did I stop Ragnarok?"

"I didn't know until a few minutes ago. Much like Ragnarok you struggle with something inside of you…hatred…rage…perhaps that means something to him."

"You mean he thinks I'm his kindred spirit…thanks…that's just great."

It began to rain hard. Soon both Raven and Strata were soaked.

Strata spoke next, "I don't think it's like that. I think you're special, Raven, and I think something about you struggling to contain your rage…to do what Ragnarok cannot…that may be a power that he cannot comprehend."

Raven lowered her head, "I'm…I'm…sorry about tonight Strata…being who I am is very hard."

Strata smiled and raised her chin up so her eyes met his with his finger, "That's ok; I know what it means to be from a place of fire. Sadly, this burning city reminds me of home." He brushed a raindrop from her cheek.

"Where is Ragnarok, Strata?"

"Your contact with him put him back in prison. He's back in my jail, still as angry and sorrowful as ever."

"Will he get out again?"

"Yes, he will; that's unavoidable now. His rage is too strong. It will not be a long absence like before; he will come soon."

"Are you going to leave again when he does?"

Strata looked down at the city, "I don't know what to do anymore. You are still my best hope, but I left because I did not want to put you in anymore danger. You're special, Raven; I can see that now. You're too special to have to deal with both your inner rage and Ragnarok's. I took your T-Ship to get my spaceship. It's been in the bottom of the bay since I got here."

Raven suddenly realized something, "The mysterious object no one could find when Ragnarok first fell from the sky—that was your ship?"

"Yes, it's been at the bottom of the bay. It was designed as a stealth ship, and it's hard to find. I needed the T-Ship to go underwater to two it up—my controller's signal won't work underwater. I've been wandering the planet all this time because I did not have it. When Cyborg said the T-Ship doubled as a sub, I knew I needed it to get my own ship back."

"So you weren't in it when it fell in the water?"

"No, I got here…another way…"

"Mysterious again?"

"Yes."

The night rain continued to poor. Strata looked down at Raven and brushed a stray wet hair from her face. "You're wet, my little moon."

"So are you, mysterious stranger."

"What shall I do now, Raven?"

"Raven looked at him squarely. I've come to a decision about that. I came to this planet to help people before my father came…to do good before this planet joined Azarath in the flames. We saved this planet when it needed us; we even saved it from my father. Now you need help Strata, and like I was, you are plagued with coming flames that you have no hope to stop. So, I am going to help you however I can. The Titans will help you. This is your function now; you're staying with us until we can stop Ragnarok—however we might do that."

"Ah, so I'm your prisoner. Are you going to chain me toward something."

"Goodness go, I'm going to keep you busy putting ankle bracelets on Beast Boy."

Strata laughed, "Raven, whatever happened to your father? How did you destroy him?"

Raven looked melancholy again, "I…I…don't think I destroyed him. I closed the portal—me that he came through and sent him back through. My father was in a sort of prison before he came here. He needed me to fulfill the prophecy that let him out. I put him back in; I could not destroy him; I'm not sure anything can."

"So he could still come after you?"

Raven seemed crestfallen, "I don't know how long that prison would hold him; it held him for a number of years before he came here. He's like Ragnarok like that."

Strata smirked and a shadow fell over his face, "Your father is still alive in his prison…there are far too many monsters in our lives," he whispered.

"Too much rage," agreed Raven.

Strata looked at her again as the rain continued to soak them. "How will you get the others to let me stay?"

"I'll make them understand; don't leave me…us, again."

"Don't worry; from now on, I'm like your second shadow."

"Great," said Raven, "Another one."

The Tower alarm went off, and Raven's communicator beeped.

"Maybe somebody finally noticed I'm here," said Strata.

Raven answered her communicator to hear Robin's voice, "Raven! Cinderblock has been spotted in the warehouse district near the docks. Meet us out front!"

"On our way," said Raven. She closed the communications link before Robin could ask about the plural.

"Am I coming?" said Strata.

"It's going to take more than Cinderblock for you to escape again, Strata; I hope those hammers hit hard."

Strata smiled, "At least, we're already wet."

_To Be Continued..._

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* * *

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_ Ah, it feels so nice to update again. I hope all of you found Raven and Strata's latest escapade enjoyable. I must thank all my regular reviewers...PhoenixClaw, greatcreator, whitedarkness, it' s been great having you all along with all my other reviewers to whom I am obscenely greatful. _

_So, what's next. What is Strata's third object in the box? Where is he from anyway? What does an encounter with Cinderblock hold? Can Raven really find a way to defeat Raganarok for good? Is Strata still hiding anything? And what's the whole story behind that strange black ship that Strata can control? How will the other Titans respond to Strata's reappearance. Chapter 16 people! Chapter 16! Review this one; please--this update is 6,000+ words. I could use the feedback right now!  
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	16. Into the Darkness

_Hello readers, it is good to have you back. It has been some time since I was able to work on this projects, during which the entire Teen Titans series ended in that holdover (what were they thinking?). Still, with a made-for-TV movie out later this year, there is something for Titans fans to hope for. As for the delay, I offer only two words: grad school. If this is your first reading of this little adventure featuring Raven, an enigmatic young lad by the name of Severing Strata, and a an even more enigmatic beast by the name of Raging Ragnarok, feel free to leap back one chapter and read the summary I have written that shall help get you "caught up" to our story this far. Thanks to all who have reviewed. We now return to our heroes where Strata has re-joined the Titans as they pursue Cinderblock following an alarm in the warehouse district after Strata and Raven have dueled and made peace following a rather stressful sunset. It is still raining…_

The Bird, The Boy,. and The Mighty Beast

Chapter 16: Into the Darkness

Rain—the monotony of the precipitation's percussion on the roof of the T-Car was the only accent to the Severing Strata's present existence. The water drops fell from the sky as if rejected by the heavens, seeking to blend in the sounds of their descent with the din of the T-Car's wheels on the asphalt. Noises were few; the interior of the T-Car was eerily quiet. As Strata stared out the window from the backseat on the passenger's side, behind Robin, he caught a small shimmer of light from the full moon peeking out from behind a particularly black cloud just before the silver satellite was again obscured by the dark sheets in the atmosphere. Strata turned his gaze to his left and made eye contact with Raven in the seat adjacent to him; her eyes gave him a clear message, "Not a word." Strata needed no reminders though, for he had determined that at this time he had nothing worth saying.

Cyborg drove fast in the rain. Robin sat in the passenger's seat with Starfire between them. Behind her in the rear was Raven while Beast Boy sat behind Cyborg, trying to think of a joke.

It was Cyborg who broke the silence, "Robin, we could hit Cinderblock with the artillery cannon if we need to…oh, wait! We lost the artillery cannon fighting Ragnarok! We could borrow a laser from the T-Ship, but somebody went off and took it!" Cyborg shot a nasty glare into the rear-view mirror in Strata's general reflection. Strata, unmoved, continued staring into the sky.

"Not now, Cyborg," began Raven, but she stopped as Strata touched her right hand. "Don't, Raven," whispered Strata at a barely audible tone, "I'm not worth it." Raven opened her mouth to object but Strata had returned to his gazing.

Starfire opened her mouth to attempt to say something friendly, but a gentle touch from Robin on her knee made her resist. She looked at Robin, and the Boy Wonder shook his head.

The conversation reintroducing Strata to the Titans had been brief. The Titans had been surprised to see Raven emerge last from the Tower with Strata following behind her. Raven had simply walked up to Robin and stared into his eyes and said, "He's coming." Robin opened his mouth to protest, but Raven simply said, "I'll handle it."

There was a moment of stunned silence for a moment, until Starfire had flown towards Strata and given him a giant hug, "Welcome back, Friend Strata, where did you go?" Strata had simply looked into the princess' eyes and sheepishly answered, "Hi, Starfire, nice to see you to." They had then quickly filed into the T-Car and began driving towards the docks.

Now they were approaching their destination, which was not far from the Tower (which was good, lest Strata die from dirty looks). Beast Boy looked out at a few of the collapsed warehouses. The docks were away from the battle site where the Titans had waged their second melee with Ragnarok, but it had suffered some damage from Ragnarok's bombardment from the sky above. The irony of Strata being with them was not lost on anyone; it was near here that Ragnarok had first descended from the sky two years ago.

"It's good that it's raining, ya' know, Strata," said Beast Boy, flashing his friendliest smile. "It might put all the fires out."

"Hopefully, this city can begin to heal soon," said the newcomer.

"All these warehouses destroyed in the dark; it's kina creepy," said Beast Boy.

Strata smirked. "You know what's even worse; it reminds me of home." Strata felt a subtle squeeze of his hand—a show of support (he hoped)—from Raven.

"Does it rain a lot at your home, Strata?" asked Beast Boy, not sure what to say and not noticing Robin's hand motions to stop talking.

"Not anymore Beast Boy. The last time I saw it; it was on fire. Once we had trees and rivers and sunshine and music and people. I played piano before I became a soldier. I was the lead pianist at the River Club. I even played the Governor's Ball once. Alisha used to listen to me practice instead of doing her homework. But then, that all stopped when the war came, when the tyrant came—the day everything I loved died." Beast Boy did not know what to say after this. Strata gazed out at the warehouses as Cyborg and Robin scanned the rainy scenery for signs of Cinderblock. In a few seconds he remembered how it had all ended…

Strata reminisced in the T-Car. His memories faded back to a time before war and Ragnarok…

* * *

Strata remembered standing at a small airstrip on the outskirts of his old city. He was clad in dark gray with three red bars on his lapel and a dark purple "Z" on the left shoulder of his suit, his military uniform. He had risen the ranks quickly in the war as he had become one of the unit's best pilots. He had just been selected to be one of the pilots for the new class of stealth space fighters. The airstrip was very near his home, and he was talking with one of his colleagues about the ongoing struggle.

Strata remembered the conversation, "Gradius, how did the strike on the other side of the river go?"

His colleague Gradius, clad in the same uniform with the same rank as Strata responded, "We're in bad shape Severon; at last contact, most of everyone had been wiped out. No matter how hard we try to hit them; they just keep coming."

"We're outnumbered against him, Gradius. We've done well to hold out this long. This war has been going on for one year. Our land is dying."

"Severon, we soon may be all that is left of the strike team. It seems like they have taken the command post in the north woods. They did not even have to attack it; their fires are spreading so quickly that the entire forest is burning. How goes your end?"

"I've got the modifications to the lasers on the ship ready. The special parts were not easy to obtain." Thunder boomed in the distance. "Do you have the remote?"

"Yes," said Gradius, reaching into the lapel of his coat and removing a small gray square that resembled a PDA with buttons and a small screen on one side. On the back were strange markings and a distinctively purple "Z" that matched the emblems on their uniforms. "Be sure to test it first. What is the chance of this working?" He handed the device to Strata.

Strata took the device and placed it in a small metal box that was magnetized to his metal belt. "I'll put it in here for safekeeping. The ship is behind my house. I'll be honest, Gradius; I don't know if this will work."

Gradius smiled, "Come on; you're Severon Stratanum, 'The Severing Strata,' I'm sure you can handle it."

Strata smiled and gazed out towards in the west. Smoke was rising from the tops of them, and lava was pouring down the sides. He had climbed those mountains many times when he was young. The geologists in the army said that there was no chance that they were really volcanoes, yet when the war had began and the enemy had come, the once green mountains were now sourced of fire and ash that rained soot across the countryside. The enemy was on those mountains and camped at the bottom of them. " 'The Severing Strata?' You have not called me that in a long time, Gradius."

"Hey, I bet you are still as good as you were your swords back then. You always beat me in the energy weapon fights. But what's really bothering you?"

"Alisha, if I don't come back, there will be no one there to watch over her. I'm all she has left since mom and dad died a few months ago."

"Hey, Severon, I don't want to hear that kind of talk from you. You're a survivor if nothing else. I know if everything else here comes to an end; you'll still be going."

"Thanks, I think."

"But, just in case, what will you do if this does not work?"

"I've given that some thought. I may have to try to get help from the neighbors."

"Over the mountains? Do you really think you can get the ship over them safely? Do you think they can…or even will…help us?"

"With the new weapons on the stealth ship, I think I can make it there. As for that second part, who knows? Best to just win now."

"I hear you there, Severon. Go see Alisha and get the ship ready. We launch our final strike to whatever end in three hours."

"It's my final mission then," said Strata, "Is it true that the tyrant is using mind control over our soldiers?"

Gradius shook his head, "I think that's just a rumor. I wouldn't worry though; your mind's about as valuable to him as a rasin."

"Very funny, I'll try to not to remember that as I'm flying the heavily armed ship above you."

Gradius laughed, "I need to get ready, 'Severing Strata.' Tell Alisha I said, 'hi.'"

"I will," said Strata, "though I fear greetings are little comfort when you are only saying hello to your end."

* * *

Strata was jolted our of his reminiscing when the T-Car stopped. "We're near the warehouse where the alarm went off," said Cyborg.

"Beast Boy," said Robin, "Do you think you can track him?"

"No way, the rain will have washed away all the scent. All I would get is an extra cold and wet doggy-nose."

The Titans and Strata got out of the T-Car. The rain was still pouring down. There was a flash of lightning. "Great," said Raven, "Just as I was starting to dry."

"Let's split up and look around," said Robin. "We'll go in three groups. I'll go with…Starfire," said Robin, feeling a circulation-cutting squeeze on his hand from the princess. "Beast Boy, you go with Cyborg, and Raven…" Robin eyed Strata suspiciously, "Watch your back."

Robin and Starfire ran in one direction while Cyborg and Beast Boy took off in another. Strata glanced over at Raven as the rain continued its percussion across the landscape. The stranger smiled, "I'm getting the distinct feeling that your leader does not trust one of us."

Raven gave a tired glance toward Strata as she meditated on the current situation. "Gee, Strata, I hope it isn't me," muttered the dark maiden. "What really bothers me is that I think I was just appointed your official guardian. Let's go and find Cinderblock so I can go home and finish that meditation sequence that you interrupted. You are refreshingly dark in your own way, but your company is somewhat of an energy drain. Also, it's wet."

"Refreshingly dark? I don't know whether to feel complemented or bothered by that my dear little moonbeam. In any case, being with me is not all that bad." Strata flicked his wrist as his hand glowed light blue with energy. An energy column grew out from his shining fist and enveloped their heads above them. That oscillating blue energy focused and materialized into an oversized umbrella covering both Raven and Strata.

Raven smirked, "My you're more prepared than a Boy Scout aren't you? Just for that I think I won't rotate your organs for that 'moonbeam' line you just tried to sneak past me."

"Ah, Raven, can't you just show a little gratitude?"

"I'd be truly grateful if you'd made that umbrella before we stepped out into the rain and gotten soaked. As of now, you're just adequate to the job. Follow me and do try not to do anything overly suspicious lest I mistake you for Cinderblock." Raven allowed herself a wry smile as she tugged Strata down a row of shipping crates.

The dark corridors of the loading docks were briefly illuminated by lightning overhead. Raven and Strata walked side-by-side under Strata's large blue umbrella. The cacophony of the rain complemented the small splashes their feet made in the drenched environment.

"Fire everywhere last night, and now the city is drenched," murmured Raven, "I think the forces of the world seem to be in awry."

"I hope that's just the gloomy Raven talking," muttered Strata, "Still, fate seems to be having its way with us. Perhaps destiny thought we needed a bath."

"Strata, may I ask you something?"

"You've never asked permission to question me before."

"Shut up. I'm trying to be serious here, and I want you to try to be a little less mysterious in this cold dark dank night so I can concentrate."

"Aw, I'm honored that my presence distracts you so much." Strata then noticed a seal of dark energy was covering his mouth.

"You've got Ragnarok jailed up right now right?" Strata nodded, as no sound was coming from his mouth. "And he's going to get loose again?" Strata nodded once more. "What will you do when that happens?" Strata shrugged his shoulders, and he pointed an index finger at Raven. It was wet from the rain.

"I don't know what I did earlier, if I did anything. You've got the wrong girl if you're looking for some heroine to save your butt." Strata hung his head in desperation and tapped his finger against Raven's forehead.

"Is Ragnarok inside that ship of yours somehow? Is he trapped in it? Do you have something that binds him?" Strata was non-responsive.

The sky was briefly lit by another lightning bolt before darkness again covered the horizon. The rain fell, cascading down crates and boxes, until it met gravity's will on the rough pavement of the dock. All that noise was contrasted by the silence of two people staring into one another's eyes under a makeshift blue energy umbrella beneath an ebony sky. Raven gazed into Strata and remembered her own internal pain when her father's rage had consumed her only two hours earlier on the roof of Titans Tower. "Did Strata's past give him such lingering sorrow too?" she wondered. "Was he also haunted by a figure who destroyed what was close to him?" Raven drew closer under the umbrella to the mysterious red-haired arrival. Trying to create some trust between them, she gently placed her left hand on his right shoulder and looked up at him. With a flick of her right thumb, the dark band covering his mouth disappeared. Raven narrowed her eyes for a moment as if studying the contours of Strata's eyes. The newcomer was unmoving.

"Strata," said Raven, pausing to gather herself, "As I look at you now, I can't help but wonder if I have been asking you the wrong questions up until now." She stopped for a moment and gazed down as if struggling with her words. "What I mean is…I…my father…hurt a lot of people…my friends…my mother…he…he…"

"…hurt you?" finished Strata, in an almost voiceless whisper.

"Hurt me…" said Raven. "As I look at you, I can't help but see the same hurt in your eyes." Raven's jaw was actually quivering; she felt something in her head was bout to meet with her heart and that some deep truth would come flying down from the sky in the midst of the rain and land between the two figures. She squeezed his shoulder as she framed her next question, wiping her damp forehead with her right palm. "Strata," stammered the girl from Azarath, "What happened to Alisha? Did Ragnarok do something to her? Did you become his jailer because he hurt your sister?"

Strata's eyes grew wide for a moment before he clinched them shut as if they would betray some sudden vulnerability behind them. When he reopened his eyes, his vision laid out Raven's face before him but not with the look her face formerly had of annoyance, questioning, or simple tolerance, but of genuine concern and—what was that?…pity.

His gaze looked left and right but found no object that could give him comfort as he felt a swell of memory burst upon himself. "Raven," he said in a low, soft voice, "I remember when I last saw her. I was coming back from a meeting with my partner Gradius; we had become field commanders in the army due to mostly attrition. I was to fly that ship you saw, my plane, on a mission to provide air cover to our last chance offensive charge against the tyrant. We were losing the war badly by then. Lava was flowing from the once pristine mountains, and the air was thick with ash. Tar would come out of the ground from places one would never expect. And, I went back to my house to get the ship, and I saw my sister."

"Will you tell me?" asked Raven, trying to find what pain had made her think of hers.

"Don't we need to find Cinderblock?"

Raven squeezed his shoulder again. "Who?" she replied with a weak smile.

Strata began his tale.

"I was coming back from my meeting with Gradius. Arriving home, Alica greeted me at the door. The ship was out back…"

* * *

"Brother! You're home!" squealed Alicia as she ran to meet Strata. The setting of their home was simple, a gray dome covered with soot from the dirty winds. Partitions divided the small dwelling into different rooms.

Strata rubbed the green-haired girl's head. "Hey, Squirt, what's up with you?"

"You were gone for a long time," said Alicia, in an accusing tone.

"Gradius gets a little long winded in his reports, Alica. I have a mission today."

"A mission? I thought you said you would try to stay home with me. Mom and Dad are gone now, and they went on a mission and never came back."

Strata staggered. Alicia was more alert then he gave her young years credit for. "Listen, Alicia," said Strata. "There's a lot of bad stuff coming here. I'm not sure what; the stories make it sound really scary. Lots of people going to the front line are just disappearing. If I don't go, then we could be in even bigger trouble. I don't want to see you get hurt; you're all I got left kid." He rubbed Alicia's head again.

"You're all I got left too, brother," moaned Alicia, "What if you don't come back?"

"If I don't come back…" said Strata, certain of what doom would occur if this last assault failed, "Aw, don't worry, kid. They may be tough, but they haven't beaten ME yet, so they're in for a real surprise."

Alicia allowed herself a small grin, "You said that before you tried riding that horse last summer."

Strata smiled, "And I rode that horse, my dear."

Alicia looked at him, "But you also fell off and broke your arm."

Strata chuckled, "Hey, I was on it for a couple of seconds." They both laughed.

Alicia looked at him, "Promise that you come back! Promise me that I'll see you again, Severon!"

Strata looked at the ground, unsure of what to say. He then gazed at his little sister, "I'll come back, Alicia. Nothing will stop me from fixing all of this."

Alicia reached in her pocket and took out a picture. "Here," she said, "take this picture with you—it's me and you."

Strata looked at it. "Hey, this is us from last year."

Alicia giggled, "It's the day before you broke your arm."

"Must you keep bringing that up?" They laughed again.

Strata put the picture in the metal box on his belt. "I'll put it in here with the ship controller. Time to get going; this will be a rough flight."

Alicia suddenly hugged him, "Don't make me wait for you again, Severon."

Strata allowed one tear to roll down his cheek, "I'll ask the enemy to be quick." He got to his feet. "I'll see you soon, Alicia."

Alicia watched him walk out the door, "Goodbye, Severon."

* * *

Strata looked at Raven, "That was the last I ever saw of her. I got in my ship, and I flew it towards the front lines over Gradius who was leading the ground forces' charge on foot below the mountains."

Raven looked at him closely. She knew the pain; she knew what it meant to feel like one had let one's people down with no way to reconcile that fact. "You knew you would fail that mission…your final one." She put her right arm around his neck and lowered her left arm around his back until they were almost embracing. "But I still don't understand…"

Strata put his free hand under her chin. "That was not my final mission. When I meant that I failed my last mission, I did not mean that flight. That flight started something that no one could have predicted."

Raven looked at him closely, "What? What happened next?"

Strata looked down at her, "Raven, I told you two nights ago that I was a bad jailer."

"Yes, because you can't keep Ragnarok locked up."

"Well, what if I told you that I was a bad jailer because I was supposed to have two prisoners?"

Raven backed away from him, "Please don't tell me that Ragnarok has a clone somewhere."

Strata shook his head, "No, thank goodness. My other jail cell, though calling it mine is actually a bit of a stretch—it was more of a group effort, could not ever be maintained indefinitely; it was not designed for that. It was a postponement, a redirection of the apocalypse. It was too late by then though; my home was gone."

Raven looked at him, "Who was it for?"

Strata smiled wryly, "Ragnarok's jailmate."

"And who was that?"

Strata looked at her, "The one Ragnarok wants dead more than anyone else, the one it is searching for, the one who is its most bitter opposite and yet its most unrivaled comparison…"

"His enemy…the one he is was yelling for?"

"Yes, interesting that you call that monster 'he.'"

"I feel Ragnarok's pain as well. He suffers."

"Do you have pity for Ragnarok? After what that monster did to your city in its rage?"

"There's more to him than rage, and I think you know what it is! But first, what became of his enemy?"

"He was sealed in his cell, then escaped, and then was blown to oblivion trying to escape or something. He's not a problem anymore, but try getting Ragnarok to believe that."

"So Ragnarok's enemy is…"

"Unimportant now, absolutely of no consequence, and I have an empty cell somewhere."

"You're being vague again."

This time Strata gazed Raven in the eyes. He put his left hand on her right shoulder after brushing away a stray hair that fallen across her forehead. "Raven," asked Strata in a low whisper, "Do you know what it's like to be alone?"

Raven looked at Strata's eyes and feeling that her heart was beginning to flutter again. "I think you know the answer to that question. I was different since I was born, and I have been someone who fears my own birthday."

"And me…"

"You…" whispered Raven, putting her arm around his neck again, "said that you were the last of your people…"

"Alone, yes."

"They were killed by that tyrant…or Ragnarok…or both…or…"

"Alone, the pain we share is real."

"I can see why you don't like to tell this story anymore; it gets very painful from after you leave Alisha. I can sense that somehow leaving your sister was not even the worst. My father destroyed most of my homeland, and you likewise saw yours destroyed. And…somehow…you lived."

"Indeed."

"You lived…alone…"

"Yes…"

"Why did you come to me?"

"You are my hope in the rain. Do you ask yourself, "Why me?'"

"Everyday, every moment, every breath I draw hear with you. Why am I out here in the rain with you? Why are you the last of your kind?"

Strata hugged Raven, " 'Why me, indeed.'"

* * *

Far away from the bird and the boy, Cyborg and Beast Boy were less concerned with past apocalypses and flying ships (though Cyborg was still pretty steamed about the T-Ship being taken by Strata) and more on topic of finding Cinderblock.

"I don't get it, BB," said Cyborg, "What is Cinderblock doing in a place like this."

"I bet he got sick of the rain and went home," said BB, "every animal I can be is soaked! I have water in my fur, scales, feathers, and hairy hides!"

"Yeah, you do smell like a wet poodle when it rains."

"Funny, but what I don't get is why Cinderblock is roaming around out here. There's nothing but junk, abandoned junk mostly."

"And he's way too quiet," said Cyborg, "maybe this is just a pointless search. He could have left before we got here."

"Ooo! Ooo! I know! Maybe this a distraction from somewhere else!" said the green changeling.

"If something came up on the crime radar, we'd know. I'm about to call Robin and say that we should head back to the Tower. If Cinderblock was here, something would have crashed by now."

At that moment, the two Titans rounded a corner around a particularly tall stack of aluminum shipping crates, the size of rail cars. They were stacked quite high with the first column one crate higher than the others. Unknown to them as they rounded the corner, was that one crate was not stacked on the others but was being held up in the air. And when Cyborg and BB rounded the corner, Cinderblock crushed that large freight crate onto their heads.

Cyborg and Beast Boy crumpled onto the ground as their world went dark. The rain washed down the sides of their aluminum headstone.

_That's Chapter 16 everybody! I hope everyone enjoyed that; I made a long one to make up for my absence. I will say that grad school has picked back up again now that the break I used to write this is over so further updates may be delayed until mid-July. So, what's going to happen to Cyborg and Beast Boy? Will Raven and Strata continue their rainy interlude? And what of Robin and Starfire? Why is Strata the last of his people and what happened on his flight into battle? Chapter 17 people! The next couple will be blockbusters! Please R I need some love for 4,400+ words (or hate).  
_


	17. Who Needs Free Will Anyway?

_Salutations, my dear readers. Is this story really 17 Chapters long? No wonder I'm so tired! It has been fun, though, so I cannot complain at my fortune of being able to write this update, and having you read it! I do love my readers; I wonder if I would still write if no one was reading, but I do know that it would be less enjoyable._

_People new to this story or returning after a break might want to jump back to Chapter 15 and read the plot summary to get up to date. Or, you could do the most excellent and enjoyable task of reading the entire. According to Phoenix, this can be done in 2 hours and is quite fun! I promise that they're worth it._

_But enough of my ramblings as I hate stories that use too long introductions without cause, let us return to our story where Strata and Raven are coming to terms with each other (and the rain) and Beast Boy and Cyborg have been flattened under a crate by Cinderblock. It is, of course, to everyone's chagrin, still raining…_

The Bird, The Boy, and The Mighty Beast

Chapter 17: Who Needs Free Will Anyway?

High in the sky above Jump City and interesting meteorological phenomenon was occurring. Within the dark cumulonimbus clouds charged with positive and negative energy, ice crystals were aligning and fusing and moving about in their own private dance miles above the city with little thought to the world below except their own ritualistic steps across the sky as they had done since the dawn of time. Each crystal was affixed on its own individual place in the dance so much that if it collided with another crystal, the two would fuse and continue their dance in unison, their steps aligned, their rhythm joined in a melody that kept time with roars of thunder. The unified crystals would dance and collide with other members, adding more and more to the growing community of its dance, and egalitarian union of ice, moisture, and hydrogen bonds with no regard to each individual drop's background, ph balance, or acidity. Sadly, each larger crystal became less aware of the cracks in its puffy supports below it and as it grew too fat from its joining brethren the large crystals would fall from its heavenly perch and melt in the night air. Falling with suddenly new appreciation of gravity to the city below where many would alight on the cape of a young girl immigrant from Azarath, clothed in blue and becoming grumpier by the minute.

In short, it was raining, and Raven was getting sick of it.

Turning towards Strata and his umbrella of blue energy, Raven sighed, "I think the sky is laughing at your umbrella. I swear the drops are swerving around it."

The red-haired new comer looked up towards the sky, "The clouds cover the moonlight. I cannot see the moon tonight."

Raven eyed her equally-soaked partner, "I thought I was your moonbeam Strata."

Strata looked at her with a wry smile as if he was going to say something but held his tongue and motioned them onwards. Raven growled inwardly, "Great, he did NOT just get me to say that." The two marched forward, lost in their own multitude of thoughts.

* * *

The precipitation was less problematic to some, however. In the language native to the planet Tamaran, this sort of extended thundershower accompanied with rapid dramatic bursts of lightning and window-rattling thunder was called a _flubber dubber_ and was considered ideal for watching outdoor sporting events, going on picnics, and camping under the cloud-concealed stars. In fact, a hailstone falling on your head while sleeping at night during Druru, the third month of the Tamaranian calendar, was considered a sure sign that a special person you were thinking about would fall in love for you forever if you splashed them with water from a puddle before the rain ended. 

It was not hailing, and she was not asleep, but Starfire was optimistic nonetheless as she flew down from the sky and rapidly slammed her feet into a puddle right in front of Robin, for the seventh time. They had been patrolling the far northern side of the docks for some time with no more luck than Strata and Raven. Robin had hoped that Starfire might provide some aerial reconnaissance during this mission, but the tall Tamaranian princess seemed distracted with splashing him and asking if he thought it might hail.

"Starfire, will you cut that out?" asked the irritated Titans leader, "Are you hoping I might like it the more you did it?"

Starfire was, in fact, hoping just that. "I am sorry Robin," she sheepishly muttered. She suddenly had an idea, "Do you want to splash me?"

Robin, who had water leaking out from under his mask by this point, failed to recognize the cultural black hole between them, "Starfire, we have to keep looking for signs of Cinderblock. I cannot seem to raise Cyborg or Beast Boy on the communicator; perhaps the storm is interfering." Starfire was sincerely disappointed.

"Friend Robin," queried Starfire, "what could the Cinderblock be doing out here?"

"I don't know Starfire; there's nothing to steal and nothing really worth wrecking. I don't feel right about this."

"As do I, Robin, why would Cinderblock come here and cause the mayhem and bad violence in this rain?"

"I don't know, Starfire; this entire mission is beginning to resemble a wild goose chase."

"I am sorry, Robin; I did not know that I was supposed to be looking for geese. Will they help us find Cinderblock?"

"Starfire….never mind," stammered Robin.

"Do geese even come out during hail?" sincerely questioned the princess.

"No, they are apparently smarter than us," quipped the Boy Wonder.

"So who is this Cinderblock guy, again?" asked Strata, to a very soaked Raven.

"He's a big stone head who tends to break all he touches, not unlike you."

"Please Raven, I only break hearts."

"And garage doors."

"I'm sure there was a heart in that somewhere."

They had been walking for some time under the punishing weather. Still huddled under Strata's now irrelevant umbrella and trying to maintain some pretense of resistance to the thundering skies, the two mysterious teens were wrapped in soaking cloak of night, smelling the salty air rising from the bay. Raven occasionally risked a casual glance at her enigmatic companion. His fiery red hair had darkened damply to contrast with her short, soaked amethyst tresses. As she gazed at him, Raven for a moment wondered if the weather and the rain and Cinderblock were actually all irrelevant to Strata's destiny. Not that she had much information to approach him from, Strata's destiny being at best a subject of conjecture right now. Still, the teen emitted an aura of confidence that made an empathetic connection with his ever-present aloofness. To her, Strata was the ultimate paradox of a person, his presence both reassuring and irksome.

Analyzing herself, Raven realized her mixed reaction towards Strata was likely a product of their last encounter on the roof of the Tower. When she had first given into her dark side around her teammates, she had felt afraid and ashamed of herself for what they might think of her. But now with Strata, she simply felt vulnerable, like he had seen some inner part of her without her letting it into view, like she had unintentionally offered him a part of her inner soul. She had to admit he could touch her raw nerves in a very unique way, yet he also had his own vulnerabilities, his own weaknesses, that led her to realize that she almost felt she could trust him with her insecurities.

"That," thought Raven, "Is his true danger. He is simply too alive."

Strata was also thinking to himself. Mostly, it was about the rain with several images of Ragnarok mixed in. He did think it was strange that Raven kept looking at him with some wonderful gaze. What forces of destiny had tied him together with this dark girl he could not truly appreciate, but he felt that as they trudged through the rain that they were paddling a canoe upstream the river of fate together.

"So we just keep walking until something happens?" asked the newcomer.

"That's the plan."

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray."

"Then you should just feel fortunate that I'm neither."

"Raven, can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead; I know you won't shut up until you've said it."

"Do you believe in fate?"

Raven game him an awkward glare. _Fate. Destiny._ Those were words that were common in Azarath. A prophecy recited by the Azarathian monk Azar at her birth had foretold that she would be a portal that usher in the end of the world and the beginning of a new reign of tyranny for her father. That was to be her fate, her destiny. Yet, when that day come, her friends had saved her and stopped that supposedly immovable force of fate. For Raven, who was used to magic working the ends driven and prophecies being fulfilled, it had been a mind-shattering event.

The dark-haired girl turned toward her shifty companion as they walked among the shipping crates, "I used to, and I guess I still do…"

"But?" asked Strata, sensing more beneath the surface.

"I also believe in hope now. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking about free will."

"Deep topic for a rainstorm."

"Do you think we are here by accident and or choice or have forces beyond our control led us here?"

"If this is another attempt of yours to be mysterious, I am not playing along."

"Because, I am not always sure if I have full control of my actions…"

Raven scowled and moved in front of Strata and stopped their movement. She turned to face him, her damp cape throwing more water around them. "Listen up; if you have something you want to say then say it! I am getting sick of your melodramatic, larger-than-the universe pandering. I am the dark, strange one in this city, and there is not room for one more. So if you have anymore of your obsessive drivel to say while I stand here soaking in this abysmal downpour standing here with the most double talking boy I have ever met, I suggest you let it out right now because one more mysterious sentence from you, and I'm going to take my stored up Beast Boy anger out on your red-haired hide!" She took a step forward put her face four inches from his and gave an interminable glare into the Severing Strata's eyes. "So, what now, Strata; anything you want to say to me?"

The seconds of raindrops passing between them were as drops of sand in an hourglass. Strata gazed into the eyes of Raven and wondered what was passing inside her head. As she stood there, the rainwater sliding down her wet skin from her dank hair, he looked into the eyes of someone that he had come to depend on for all his troubles, the one person in the world he did not want to hurt, and was yet the one person that he was probably troubling the most. Strata closed his eyes and suppressed some secret inner pain, then opened them and gazed back into those seething eyes.

"Raven," the boy said quietly, "there is something that I would like to say."

"What?" spatted the young sorceress, with her hands on her hips. "What do you want to say to me Severing Strata?"

"I'm sorry for getting you involved in all of this."

Raven fluttered a little inside, and she could feel her resolve slipping. She had half-expected to blast him into a crate whatever he said, but somehow, Strata had come up with a sentence that made her only slightly less upset with him. Shoring up the emotional reserves that she was not ready to give up yet, she continued her verbal assault.

"That's not good enough anymore. It's too rainy for your apologies. I want answers! You said that Ragnarok escaped your prison; did you let him out?"

Strata was taken aback, "No, no, I most certainly did not."

She maintained her glare, "So he forced his way out?"

"Yeah, I cannot hold him back forever."

Her eyes narrowed, "Will he get out again?"

"Undoubtedly, unless we can find some way to prevent it."

"Where is this prison? Is he somehow in that dark ship of yours? What is in there?"

Strata did not answer, but began staring at the ground sheepishly.

"Where is it you half-hearted coward?"

"Hey you don't have to call me…"

"WHERE?"

Strata was taken aback, and he wondered if she planned to harm him. "I…I…cannot say. It is enough that he is there."

Raven came one step closer to him and grabbed him by the chin, lowering his head so that their noses were almost touching. "It is NOT enough." She stopped talking for a moment. "I know you are in pain. I know that you are hurting, as you said before, you and I share the pain of people being alone." She paused and brought the hand holding his chin to her heart, "We each have our own monsters that we have to struggle with. Who can you tell if not me?"

Strata looked at Raven with a look of astonishment. "The last thing I deserve from you is sympathy."

"You're getting it anyway."

"I don't need your pity."

"You said you needed ME."

"I do."

"I need you to talk to me."

"We need to find Cinderblock."

"You don't care about Cinderblock. Cinderblock is worlds away from where you and I are right now. You came to find me. Here I am. Here we are, two people with our own monsters." She moved her hand from her heart and touched it to his. His jacket was damp, but at that moment, neither of them knew the rain existed. The smells of the salty air were foreign to them. There was that moment, where Raven was struggling to build a bridge between that alienated void that separated their souls.

Raven's voice fell to a whisper, "I need to ask you something, and if what we are doing right now means anything to you at all, I need you to be honest with me, if only this one time Strata."

Strata struggled inwardly. This moment was all too surreal. All he knew was that this heroine, this girl, meant more to him right now than a thousand more Ragnaroks, raindrops, or secret ships. If only he could forsee a happy ending in this, then perhaps he might have felt Ok about what was happening to them right now. Such is the nature of tragedy; the saddest events are often the inescapable nightmares that heroes make in their own minds, be they reality or fantasy.

Raven pressed her hand a little on Strata's chest, trying to sense some inner emotion in him that just would not reach her senses. "I still cannot sense you at all. You are such a magnificent mystery. Please Strata, talk to me. I must know…" Her voice again dropped to a whisper, "Are you the Raging Ragnarok?"

Strata's eyes focused in on Raven's. They grew very large and then narrowed. The corners of his mouth turned down and he felt his forehead grow heavy. "That is your question, is it?" Releasing the now irrelevant blue energy umbrella from his hand, it vanished the second his hand lost contact with it. "That is your question?" he said with the sounds of a churning temper in his voice?

"Yes, I must know."

Strata took a step back and Raven's arm fell limply by her side. "Don't you ever compare me with that monster. He ruined my life! No, we are not the same! Ragnarok is a terror! He lives in a cell of such design that I cannot fathom its make. But it is imperfect; as he is in there, his power grows and waxes and increases and when it is strong enough he breaks free."

"But you too are connected. When he was near out, the stress practically destroyed you."

"Oh yes, we are connected. I know his anger now; it is growing every moment." Strata stopped his tirade and looked at Raven, "I do not know if your presence will hold his fury again."

"But Ragnarok is so filled with sorrow…"

"Sorrow? Sorrow! Ragnarok is beyond dangerous! In spite of that fiend's creation my home is annihilated! My sister is dead, and my parents are dead, and I am alone, the last of my people!"

"Creation? That thing was MADE?"

Strata stopped for a second fearing that he had just made a fatal error. He gathered himself and looked at Raven. "Nothing that cruel can be natural. Everything surrounding Ragnarok, his cell, his powers, even the mighty beast himself was the part of a plot to stop the Tyrant, to put the Tyrant and Ragnarok in an inescapable prison together."

"I am guessing that it did not go as plan."

"No," murmured Strata, "it did not. Ragnarok's prison was inadequate, the Tyrant escaped only to later be vanquished elsewhere, and I am still alive."

Raven moved toward him again, "Is you being alive such a tragedy?"

Strata shook his head, "If I had died on my last mission as I had planned many people may have been saved. After I saw Alisha for the last time, I flew an experimental new fighter ship, the one you saw earlier, toward the battlefield. Our modified weapons were doing ok as I took on the enemy in the air. But while flying, I saw my friend Gradius in trouble below, and I landed the ship to assist the ground forces in close combat…"

Raven put her hand on his shoulders, "What happened, Strata?"

Strata stifled an inward tear, "We had heard the enemy had been using mind control devices; we all thought it was some fantastic rumor by defeated allies, but Gradius and our troops had been turned against us. When I landed, I was knocked out by who I thought to be my friends and was also outfitted with a traitorous mind control device and forced to fight for the enemy."

Raven stared in horror, "And your sister?"

"Unable to control my own actions; I, along with the rest of our army, burned our own city to the ground, helpless witnesses to our own civilization's destruction."

Raven was taken aback. This was what he had been keeping inside? She turned her head towards him, and in a moment of un-Raven like behavior, gave him a hug.

"Are you still pitying me?"

"No," sighed Raven, "I'm glad that there's a least one more monster-plagued teen who knows what its like to be the end of the world."

Strata smiled, "I'm not giving up on you Raven, don't give up on me."

Their grips tightened as the rain fell.

Strata chuckled, "So, back to my question, do you think it is fate that we are here together?"

Raven allowed herself a sly grin, "Who needs free will anyway?"

As they stood there in a deep embrace, the rain continued to fall. And neither of them noticed it at all.

* * *

_To be continued…_

_Ok, so it has been a few months since the last update. I have been student teaching in a local high school all fall, and working 10+ hour days takes a lot out of me. As Virginia Woolf once noted, it is incredibly difficult to have a regular job and write often. Still, I am very committed to this story and wish to finish it soon. The future chapters hold some major battles (lots of action very soon), the HIVE 5, Ragnarok, some new foes, the third object in Strata's metal box, and many more revelations. Also, what happened with Cyborg and Beast Boy? Will Robin and Starfire find out what's going on around the docks? And is it ever going to stop raining? Chapter 18 people! That's 3,400 words so R&R!_


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